LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

G^ap. - . . (itinnrir;I|l !f 0. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Symbological Catechism: 



OK is:e:y to 



THE SYMBOLOGY OF THE BIBLE. 



V 

A. J. MAPES. 



"And that from a child thou hast known the holy script- 
ures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through 
faith which is in Christ Jesus." — 2 Tim. 3:15. 




INDEPENDENCE, MO 

THE GAZETTE PRINTING HOUS 
1890. 






± 



COPYRIGHTED MARCH, 1890. 

BY 

A. J. MAPES. 



* 



PREFACE. 

Resolved^ That the more a man studies the 
Bible under a freedom from prejudice and pre- 
possessions, and with the utmost desire to un- 
derstand the things taught therein in their 
plainness and simplicity, the more he will under- 
stand them. 

Resolved, That let a man study the Bible ever 
so much under a prejudiced and prepossessed 
mind, and it is possible for him never to arrive 
at a certain understanding of but few of the 
things it really does teach. 

Resolved, That although a man should study 
the Bible ever so much, and yet draw his con- 
clusions timidly, lest he should cross the track 
of his church or the ministers thereof, is in a 
fair way to be ^^ever learning, and never able to 
come to a knowledge of the truth." 

Resolved, That those who would hold the 
same views as nearly as possible in regard to the 
things of the Bible, should endeavor, as far as 
possible, to dispense with all prejudice and pre- 



possessions, and to form their own conclusions, 
notwithstanding they should thereby cross the 
well-worn track of their respective churches and 
the ministers thereof. 

Resolved, That the best way for a man to get 
rid of his prejudice and prepossessions in regard 
to the things of the Bible, is to make the Book 
itself his chief study, and to strive with all his 
might to form his own conclusions, in spite of 
the teachings of his church or his great ones. 

Resolved, That the friends of the Bible should 
make the Book itself their chief study, seeing it 
is not because they have searched its pages too 
much, that they are divided up into so many 
factions, but because they have searched them 
too little. 

Resolved, That the author of this work does 
not necessarily vouch for the infallibility of the 
conclusions set forth therein ; and this for the 
reason that he is convicted in his own mind of 
not being as yet cured of all prejudice and pre- 
possessions in regard to Bible things. 

Resolved, That should this work turn out to 
be an assistance to the friends of the Bible 
in their researches after Bible things, its highest 
object will be realized. 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter I. 
The Edenic Guards. 

Chapter II. 
The Noachian Ship. 

Chapter III. 
The Confusion of Tongues. 

Chapter IV. 
The Numeric Offering. 

Chapter V. 
The Judaic Scepter. 

Chapter VI. 
The Imperial Image. 

Chapter VII. 
The Babylonian Lion. 

Chapter VIII. 
The Medo-Persian Bear. 

Chapter IX. 
The Macedonian He-Goat. 



VI CONTENTS. 



Chapter X. 
The Romish Dreadful Beast. 

Chapter XL 
The Romish Crescive Hcn-n. 

Chapter XII. 
The Romish Numeric Beast. 

Chapter XIII. 
The Coming Romish Beast. 

Chapter XIV. 
The Great City Babylon. 

Chapter XV. 
Christ and His Army. 

Chapter XVI. 
The Last Great Rebellion. 



A SYMBOLOGICAL CATECHISM. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE EDENIC GUARDS. 

Question. If, according to Gen. 2 : 9, the 
tree of life was planted in the midst of the gar- 
den of Eden; and if, according to Gen. 3:24, 
the cherubims and the flaming sword were placed 
thus and so, how was it possible for them to 
have kept ^^the way of the tree of life/' except 
the garden itself had been an inclosure inacces- 
sible to mortal man, except through a single 
entrance in the east? 

Answer. But if its cherubic guards were liv- 
ing entities, and intelligent, is it necessary that 
it should have been an inclosure? Only, there- 
fore, under the idea that its guards were an arti- 
ficial means appointed ^^to keep the way of the 
tree of life,'' would the intimation arise that the 
garden itself was an inclosure, and inaccessible 
to mortal man, except through a single entrance. 

Q. But could not God, who is supposed to be 
all-wise and all-powerful, have prevented the 



THE EDENIC GUARDS. 



man and his wife, from time to time, from re- 
entering their lost home, without the use of 
guards at all? 

A. But what sort of a God would he be of 
whom it could be said that he might have acted 
more wisely than he did act? 

Q. For the said cherubims, however, with their 
flaming sword, to have been guards in any 
effectual sense, is it not required, of course, that 
they should have been endowed with some power 
extraordinary? 

A. That God might have so endowed them, 
we could no more question than we could ques- 
tion the reality of Aaron's rod, the brazen ser- 
pent, or the urim and thummim. 

Q. But would it not be more rational to sup- 
pose that such things were only so many natural 
objects, used to direct the attention of man to 
where God was about to manifest his power 
directly? 

A. But should it be accounted more difficult 
for the Almighty to have endowed certain nat- 
ural objects with such and such supernatural 
powers and virtues, than it was for him to endow 
the grain of wheat or the acorn with power, un- 
der certain conditions, to germinate and grow? 
If God is God, what is there that is impossible 
to him? 



THE NOACHIAN SHIP. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE NOACHIAN SHIP. 

Question. Supposing such a craft as Noah's 
ark to have been a reaUty, is there not room 
for the notion, entertained by many, that in 
size, it was not sufficient to have saved alive all 
the living creatures that could not have survived 
the flood? 

Answer. If, according to Gen. 6:15, its 
length was three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty 
cubits, and its height thirty cubits; and if a 
cubit with the ancient Hebrews, as it is well 
made out, especially in Chapter 16 of a work 
entitled, '^Our Inheritance in the Great Pyra- 
mid," was a little more than twenty-five inches; 
and whereas, according to this estimate, Noah's 
ark must have been more than three hundred 
feet long, by over one hundred and fifty feet 
broad, by over sixty feet high; and whereas, 
therefore, its interior dimensions must have 
been all of twenty-seven million cubic feet; and 
whereas, a space of nine cubic feet must have 
been a sufficient average for its entire crew, 
counting say from the smallest bird up to a 



THE NOACHIAN SHIP. 



full grown mastodon; and whereas, under this 
rule it might have contained a crew of no less 
than three hundred thousand, great and small, 
therefore, to doubt its capacity to have saved 
alive all the living creatures instanced in Gen. 
6:18-22, and Gen. 7:1-5, should we not have to 
conclude that there was more than three hun- 
dred thousand of them? 

Q. Is it not remarkable, however, that a craft 
so noted, and in dimensions so great, should 
have been left (if under divine direction) upon 
the mountains of Ararat, only to be speedil}- 
hid up in its snowy grave, so that man in a few 
generations would have no means of knowing 
for himself that it or the flood had ever been? 

A. If that is worthy of note which is had in 
Josephus, book i, chapter 3, paragraph 6, con- 
cerning one Borossus who had it second hand, 
(third century B. C), that some of the remains 
of the ark were still to be seen by explorers, 
does it not follow that its testimony concerning 
its own reality and that of the flood, was not yet 
withdrawn from the world for more than two 
thousand years after its landing upon the mount- 
ains of Ararat? 

Q. But, allowing it to have been all the while 
openly exposed to those forces which cause all 



I 



THE NOACHIAN SHIP. S 



material things to crumble, is it not vain to sup- 
pose that one particle of it would have remained 
tangibly intact after two thousand years or 
more? 

A. From Gen. 7:11-24, and (len. 8:1-14, 
we understand that in one hundred and fifty 
days after the commencement of the flood, the 
earth was flooded to its greatest depth; that at 
the very time that the earth was thus flooded to 
its greatest depth the ark was landed on the 
mountains of Ararat; that in one hundred and 
thirteen days after the landing of the ark, the 
tops of all the mountains were lifted above their 
watery graves; and that in sixty days more from 
that time, the earth was dry, and the flood a 
thing of the past. 

Q. But would not the ark, therefore, on the 
very account of its vast elevation, in several 
years at most, be so completely buried up in 
one monstrous field of snow as to forbid its 
witnessing ever thereafter to the eyes of any ex- 
plorer, its own reality or the fact that there had 
ever been a flood so great as to overtop all the 
high hills, and the mountains too? 

A. But from what is known of the habits of 
those ice-crowned mountains, was it not possi- 



THE NOACHIAN SHIP. 



ble, and also probable, that after so many cen- 
turies it would in some huge glacier be worked 
to one side and at last be carried down to a 
more genial clime, there to witness to many 
an earnest explorer the dreadful happening of 
many centuries before because of sin on the one 
hand, but that wondrous deliverance because of 
fidelity and obedience on the other? 



THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 

Question. Under the view that Noah's ark 
and the flood were realities, was it possible that 
within less than one hundred and fifty years after 
the flood, and more than two hundred years 
prior to the death of Noah, any of his descend- 
ants should have been so profoundly ignorant of 
the nature of things as to have really under- 
taken to build a tower whose top should reach 
to heaven? 

Answer. But if the apparent heaven was 
meant, or that space which sets in above the 
clouds, are there any reasons why they might not, 
after so long a time, have accomplished their 
purpose? Is it not certain, from Gen. 11:5-9, 
that, had it not been for the confusion of their 
language, they would at last, through persist- 
ence, have reached a success? 

But if, before the flood, right in the face of 
Noah's preaching and the example set by him- 
self and family, all others became so utterly 
corrupt as to require that they should be clean- 
swept from the earth, is it a wonder that his 



8 THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 

descendants, in one hundred and fifty years, or 
nearly, should already have learned to invent 
and to follow their own vagaries? 

Q. But if Noah was yet alive at the confusion 
of tongues, and if, in the words of Gen. 11:9, 
^'The Lord did there confound the language of 
all the earth," does it not follow that Noah 
himself must have been caught under the curse, 
and for the reason, of course, that he must have 
been led away at last by the follies of his near 
descendants? 

A. But there being nothing in the story, all 
told, to justify the notion that Noah, with the 
earth's entire population, should have assembled 
on the plains of Shinar at one and the same time, 
ostensibly to build the tower of Babel; and 
whereas, it would be hard to believe that one 
with an experience such as he alone possessed 
should have been at last caught in the snare of 
his own near descendants, not certain at all is 
it that he, too, fell a victim to the astounding 
curse. 

Q. But if all men then living were not assem- 
bled at such a time to build the tower of Babel, 
and if the language of those who were not assem- 
bled on that occasion was not confounded, does 



THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES. 



it not follow that the Adamic language must 
have remained as a living language, notwith- 
standing the declaration in Gen. 11:9, that "the 
Lord did there confound the language of all the 
earth?" 

A. As Noah can never with justice be num- 
bered with those who conspired in a work so 
vain (judging from his course before the flood), 
and whereas the evidence is wanting to the effect 
that the earth's entire population did ever for 
any purpose assemble at one and the same time 
on the plains of Shinar, therefore should the 
idea maintain, not that the language of all the 
living was then and there confounded, 'but that 
the language that was then common to all the 
earth was thus affected. Nor is this construc- 
tion to be at all evaded, in case he is to be up- 
held as having been honorable throughout, who 
was the chief but humble instrument for the 
temporal salvation of a miniature world. 



lO THE NUMERIC OFFERING. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE NUMERIC OFFERING. 

Question. Whereas, according to Gen. 15:7, 
it must be conceded that Abraham was person- 
ally to inherit the land of Canaan; and whereas, 
his inquiry as set forth in Gen. 15:8, necessarily 
implies that he expected so to inherit it, how is 
it, after all, as may be fairly inferred from Gen. 
15:13-16, that although he was to be buried 
'^in a good old age," his promised Canaan was 
still to be in the hands of his enemies? 

Answer. Letting the three beasts and the 
two birds mentioned in Gen. 15:9 stand for 
nineteen whole numbers and sixty-eight hun- 
dredths, and supposing Isaac to have been in 
his eighteenth year at the time his father under- 
took, as set forth in Gen. 22:1-13, to offer him 
up as a burnt offering, and should it turn out, 
that, from that occurrence, to the crucifixion of 
Christ was indeed about nineteen centurial gener- 
ations and sixty-eight years over, we should then 
have about the same distance, in years, from the 
attempted offering up of Isaac to the crucifixion 
of Christ that it was to be from bis crucifixion 



THE NUMERIC OFFERING. II 



I to the first year of the millennium inclusive, the 
: year in which Abraham, with all his faithful de- 
[scendants, through Isaac in the resurrected state, 
are personally to inherit their promised land, 
which is then to include all that country that 
extends all the way from the Nile to the Eu- 
phrates. 

Q. But what basis is there for the idea that 
the said beasts and birds altogether were a rep- 
resentation of any specific number of years, 
great or small? What is there in the text to sup- 
port the plan? 

A. The simple fact that in answer to Abra- 
ham's earnest inquiry as to how he was to know 
that he was personally to inherit so great a coun- 
try, he was told to take unto him three beasts of 
the age of three years each; also a turtle dove 
and a young pigeon. And inasmuch as he 
divided each of the said beasts in two equal 
parts, it is fair to conclude that he was told so 
to divide them. But although he might not 
have understood from this that an equal num- 
ber of years was to be chronicled both back- 
ward and forward of the date that the all-suffi- 
cient sacrifice was to be made, yet in answer to 
his question, as to how he was to know that he 



THE NUMERIC OFFERING. 



was personally to inherit all the land that was 
promised him, what significance could the whole 
affair have had to him in case he perceived not 
that he was not so to inherit it until after the 
lapse of so many centurial generations, after the 
offering up of the one all-sufficient sacrifice? 

Q. But so long as we can conceive of no 
numerical significance for the said offering all 
told, what assurance have we that to Abraham 
it might have had a significance above what 
was common to an ordinary sacrifice? 

A. Were we to multiply three, the number of 
the said beasts, by two, the number of pieces into 
which each was divided, and that again by three, 
the age of each, and to the product add one for 
the age of the turtle dove, supposing it to have 
been a yearling just, and to this again add .68 
for the age of the young pigeon, supposing it to 
have been a little more than eight months old, 
we should obtain nineteen whole numbers and 
sixty-eight hundreths as a mere digital signifi- 
cance of all. 

But as generations with Abraham were cen- 
turial, and as he would certainly estimate gen- 
erations to come by what had been their 
average length, it would seem almost certain, 



THE NUMERIC OFFERING. I3 

under a numerical significance for his offering, 
that he would not understand that, within no 
more than nineteen years and a fraction, he 
and his children, (when as yet he had none,) 
would be the personal inheritors of their prom- 
ised land. And not only this, but inasmuch as 
it is clearly implied in Gen. 15:13-16, that he 
was not to inherit it in his mortality, therefore 
is it certain that had he seen a digital significance 
at all in his offering, it would have been one im- 
plying so many centurial generations, and not 
so many single years. 

Q. But while such might seem to have the 
semblance of fair reasoning, yet how was Abra- 
ham to know through what space the genera- 
tions supposed to be meant, were to be laid? 

A. Whereas, according to the true chain of 
Bible chronology, it was a little more than 
two thousand years, counting from the fifty- 
second year of Abraham's life to the birth of 
Christ; and whereas, with thirty- three years 
added to his fifty-second year, he was brought 
to his eighty-fifth year; and whereas, it may 
be fairly inferred from Gen. 12:4-5, and Gen. 
16:1-3, that eighty-five was about his age at the 
time he offered in sacrifice the said three beasts 



14 THE NUMERIC OFFERING. 

and two birds; and whereas, thirty-three years 
deducted from two thousand and one years 
would leave nineteen hundred and sixty-eight 
years, therefore did his offering tableau the dis- 
tance in years from the time it was made to the 
birth of Christ, whether he so understood it or 
not. But did he understand it? Who would 
say that the father of the faithful would be con- 
tent ere he had searched out the meaning of an 
offering so strangely composed? 

Q. But how was he to know, if such was the 
fact, that the said offering was, under some 
numerical significance, to span out the distance 
in years from his attempted sacrifice of Isaac 
onward to the crucifixion of Christ? 

A. If Abraham's age was eighty-five at the 
time of his strangely composed offering, and if 
Isaac was born fifteen years after that, as may 
be made out from Gen. 21:5, and if, as before 
supposed, Isaac was in his eighteenth year at 
the time he was about to be offered up, then was 
it thirty-three years from the time of Abraham's 
strangely composed offering forward to the 
year, inclusive, of his strange attempt to offer 
up the only heir of jjromise, and which would 
mean, of course, that if it was nineteen hundred 



THE NUMERIC OFFERING. 15 



and sixty-eight years from his strangely com- 
posed offering to the birth of Christ, it was also 
the same number of years from his strange 
attempt to offer up Isaac to the crucifixion of 
Christ. 

x\nd again, if it was to be two thousand years 
from the birth of Christ to the first year of the 
millennium, inclusive, and if thirty-three years 
was his age at his passion, then was it to be 
nineteen hundred and sixty-eight years from 
that time to the first year of the millennium, 
inclusive. 

But if, according to Heb. 11:17-19, after 
Abraham had been restrained from offering up 
his only son of promise, ^^he received him in a 
figure," the question arises, What could the 
affair have been a figure of, other than the offer- 
ing up of Christ as the all-sufficient sacrifice? 
And if he so understood it, why may it not have 
been flashed upon him even then that, as his 
numeric offering had spanned out for him the 
distance in years from the time it was made to 
the birth of Christ, it would also not only span 
out for him the distance in years from his 
attempted offering up of the son of promise to 
the real offering up of the only-begotten son of 



l6 THE NUMERIC OFFERING. 

God, but also the distance in years from that 
immaculate offering to the time that he, with all 
his faithful children through Isaac's line, are in 
the resurrected state to be in actual possession 
of all the land that was promised them. 

But aside from what Abraham may have un- 
derstood, and if we may be direct without pre- 
tending to be positive ; if from the fifty-second 
year of Abraham's life to the time of his numeric 
oifering was thirty-three years, and if from that 
offering to the birth of Christ was nineteen hun- 
dred and sixty-eight years — then was it about 
two thousand and one years, inclusive, from 
Abraham's fifty-second year to the birth of 
Christ. And again, if from his numeric offering 
to his attempted offering up of Isaac was thirty- 
three years, inclusive, and if from that attempted 
offering to the crucifixion of Christ was nineteen 
hundred and sixty-eight years, then was it about 
two thousand and one years, inclusive, from his 
numeric offering to the crucifixion of Christ. 
And lastly, if from the birth to the crucifixion of 
Christ was thirty-three years, and if from his 
crucifixion to the first year of the millennium, 
inclusive, was to be nineteen hundred and sixty- 
eight years, then was it to be about two thousand 



THE NUMERIC OFFERING. I 7 



and one years from the birth of Christ to the 
first year of the millennium, inclusive — the year 
in which Abraham, with all his worthy progeny 
through the chosen line, are to be the personal 
inheritors of that which was promised them, all 
of four thousand years before. 

Q. But what connection is to be established 
between all this and the patriarch's dream of a 
smoking furnace and a burning lamp? Gen. 

15:17- 

A. That as a dream it was fraught with mean- 
ing, we have but to contemplate this much, that 
-'a smoking furnace and a burning lamp" would 
be just about the description that would be 
expected to be given of a railroad engine as 
seen in motion after night, by one especially such 
as was Abraham, who had never before as much 
as seen or heard of a steam engine of whatever 
sort. So that, to contemplate the fact, in view 
of present railroad prospects, that before Abra- 
ham and his faithful children in the resurrected 
state are to be in actual possession of their 
promised land, that it is to be belted over with 
its railroads, and with one probably passing 
directly over the very ground where his noted 
offering was made, we have a reason apparent 



1 8 THE NUMERIC OFFERING. 

enough, not only why he should have dreamed 
what he did just after his offering was made, but 
also why the number of centurial generations 
indicated thereby should extend, in their final 
application, onward from the time of the all- 
sufficient sacrifice to the millennium begun, the 
time that the promised land, all of it. is to be 
restored to its rightful owners once for all. 



THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. I9 



CHAPTER V. 

'['HE JUDAIC SCKPTKR. 

Question. In Gen. 49:10, if what is said is 
really meant, is it not in certain conflict with the 
plainest facts in history? Is it not certain that 
the scepter did depart from the Jews, and a 
law-giver from their midst, more than once be- 
fore the days of Christ; and that now for many 
centuries they have been without even the sem- 
blance of a government of their own? 

Answer. While, in a regal sense, we can 
never doubt that the scepter did more than 
once depart from them prior to the days of 
Christ, and that, in that sense, it has now for 
many centuries been departed from them, yet 
in the sense of authoritative foremanship or 
pre-eminence in regard to the other tribes of 
Israel, has not the scepter always been with the 
Jews? In Gen. 37:23-28, in the case of the en- 
mity of Joseph's brethren against him, it was 
through the foremanship of Judah that he was 
rescued from his living grave and sold to the 
Midianites. In Gen. 43:1-14, Judah is recog- 
nized by his father as the foreman of his brelh- 



THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. 



ren in their second expedition to buy corn from 
the Egyptians; and if he was their foreman then, 
the thought is not foreign that he might have 
been such during their first expedition to the 
land of the Pharaohs for the same purpose. In 
Gen. 46:26-28, upon the arrival of Jacob and 
his colony in Egypt, Judah, over any of his 
brethren, was sent in advance to Joseph to ob- 
tain directions as to their settlement in the land 
of Goshen. In Gen. 49:8. Judah was the one 
whom his brethren were to praise, and before 
whom his father's children were to bow down. 
In Psalms 78:67-68. the tribe of Judah was 
the one which God chose in preference even 
to ''the tabernacle of Joseph ' or ''the tribe of 
Ephraim." And whereas, it is declared in Heb. 
7:14 in substance, that Christ was of the tribe 
of Judah, therefore is it certain, not only that 
the patriarchial foremanship was conferred 
upon Judah in person, but also that the tribal 
scepter was to continue with his tribe until 
Christ should come to be their Shiloh forever. 

Q. But is it not true, at all events, that the 
Jews were without a law-giver more than once 
before the days of Christ, and have now been 
continuously so for many centuries? 



THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. 21 

A. Supposing the history of the Jews to 
have begun with their settlement in Goshen in 
the land of Egypt, they would at the present 
time aggregate a chronology of not less than 
thirty-six and a half centuries. But if a Jew 
has ever been a Jew, and is as much a Jew to- 
day as he ever was, how shall we account for 
the fact, (aside from the miraculous), except 
from the inference that a law-giver of some 
sort should have ever been in their midst, to 
perpetuate that sort of legislation without which 
they could not have been preserved as a race 
distinct, in spite of all captivity and the con- 
tinuous seductive influences of other nations? 

While we might think of a Chinaman as being 
to-day just what a Chinaman was centuries and 
centuries ago, and this for the very reason that 
his government and country have always been 
so very exclusive of other nations, yet when we 
think of the length of time the Jews we^e in 
bondage to the Egyptians, the length of time 
they formed a part of one great nation with the 
other tribes of Israel, the length of time they 
were the captives of the Babylonians, the many 
times they were raided and spoiled by their 
numerous foes, and the many centuries through- 



2 2 THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. 

out which they have now been so thoroughly 
dispersed throughout other nations, it is no 
easy matter to think of their having been at any 
time entirely destitute of legislators, that were at 
least such to them, and that were at least Israel- 
itish, if not directly Judaic. In Psalms 60:7. 
David is made to call Judah his law-giver; and 
in what sense that would seem to be more con- 
sistent than that the common legislators, for the 
house of Judah at least, would always be re- 
quired to be as nearly Judaic as the race from 
time to time might afford ? 

Q. But was not Moses, the great law-giver 
for the whole house of Israel, of the tribe of 
Levi? And has it not always been held that 
the Jewish Sanhedrim, in part at least, was 
always composed of members from that tribe? 

A. While it was true enough that Jewish 
councils extraordinary were composed probably 
always of certain priestly officials who had to be 
of course of the tribe of Levi, it is nevertheless 
not certain from any scripture declaration that 
the ''elders of the people,'' as they were called, 
or any part of them, were of that tribe. But if 
we could make the elders of the people, that is, 
seventy of them, their Sanhedrim proper, none 



THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. 23 

of them being of the tribe of Levi, we could 
understand of course what would be the source 
of their common legislation, at least during the 
time of their concentered nationality. 

Q. But has not the law of Moses as dis- 
pensed always by certain priestly officials of the 
Aaronic school, been the very means of their 
preservation so long as a distinct race ? 

A. But how could a written law, no matter 
how perfect it might be, continue under the 
world's changing scenes, to be available with 
any people, without a system of living legisla- 
tion to keep it in vogue? While therefore, in a 
general way, it was true that certain priestly 
officials amongst the Jews were the proper ex- 
pounders, dispensers and judges of the Mosaic 
law, it does not follow that they were the legis- 
lators for the people, only so far as they, the 
dispensers and judges of the Mosaic law, might 
see cause to ratify or veto the enactments of the 
elders of the people. 

(2- But would not this plan have made their 
priestly officials superior to their legislators? 

A. It would, and just as it should do, seeing 
that the executive and judicial departments in 
any government ought to be superior to its 



24 THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. 

legislative department, and expressly so, to pre- 
vent the passage of obnoxious and nullifying 
laws. 

Q. But although such might have been true 
throughout a portion of Jewish history, or that 
part of their history during which certain Levite 
priests seemed to be the guardians of the Mosaic 
law, what becomes of the plan before that law 
was given, and while they were subjects of the 
Pharaohs, and not under their own laws at all ? 

A. While in that case we could not think of 
the Israelites, all told, as having been openly 
subject to any civil or political enactments other 
than those imposed by the Pharaohs, yet the 
moment we concede the fact that they must 
have remained in the mass a theocratic people 
throughout their bondage, it is only folly to 
conclude that they were not observant of certain 
rules and traditions heralded by or through 
their elders, if but covertly, that would tend to 
preserve them distinctly as the descendants of 
their ever honored ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob. Nor could we understand at all how 
their several tribes should have been so distin- 
guishable one from the other, even to the very 
close of their hard bondage, except under the 



THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. 25 

conception that some sort of legislation had 
not unfrequently been had amongst them, if but 
stealthily, through their elders. 

Q. But in that case what would the elders 
from the tribe of Judah have to do with their 
contraband government more than those elders 
that were of their other tribes? 

A. Nothing more. It is all-sufficient in fulfill- 
ment of Jacob's prophecy concerning Judah, 
that his tribe, so long as it should continue to 
be a tribe, was never to be without its legisla- 
tors or elders in an official and Judaic sense. 

Q. But would not the fact that God made 
Moses a law-giver to the whole house of Israel 
conflict with the prediction of Jacob that the 
tribe of Judah, as such, was always to have law- 
givers in their midst, and such as were to be 
Judaic more than otherwise? 

A. It would not, seeing that there is nothing 
in Jacob's prophecy requiring that no law-giver 
should ever be recognized by the Jews other 
than their common legislators or elders of the 
people. So that, although Moses has been their 
great law-giver for so many centuries, yet if 
they have ever been the chief tribe over the 
whole house of Israel; and if there has ever 



26 THE JUDAIC SCEPTER. 

been found amongst them, whether in a concen- 
tered or dispersed state, those that were legally 
the elders of the people, then is it true that the 
scepter has never departed from Judah, nor a 
law-giver from between his feet, and never will 
until Christ shall come to be their Shiloh, their 
peace forever. 



THE IMPERIAL IMAGE. 27 



CHAPTER VI. 



I'HE IxMPERIAL IMAGE. 



Question. It being conceded, of course, 
that the great image mentioned in Dan. 2:3t--35, 
should mean the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, 
the Macedonian and the Roman empires, are 
there no reasons, under that application, why 
its head should have been of gold, its breast and 
arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, its 
legs of iron, and its feet and toes of iron and 
clay? 

Ans'WER. If, in the order of its several parts, 
the several governments represented thereby 
were inferior one to the other in point of wealth, 
and yet, in the same order, superior one to the 
other in point of strength, just as gold is supe- 
rior to silver in point of wealth, but inferior to 
it in ])oint of strength ; and just as silver is 
superior to brass in point of wealth, but inferior 
to it in point of strength ; and just as brass is 
superior to iron in point of wealth, but inferior 
to it in point of strength ; then was there in the 
affair all that could be asked as a mere fitness of 



28 THE I>rPERTAT. IMAGE. 



things, and no less than what may be claimed 
on the side of history for those governments. 

Q. But, under this rule, if the stone mentioned 
in Dan. 2:34-35, should mean, as it is always 
made to do, a certain universal kingdom that 
God was, or is, to establish, does it not follow 
that, as a government, it would have to be infe- 
rior to either of its predecessors in point of 
wealth ? 

A. As to whether or not the plan should be so 
extended, let others judge. It is enough to al- 
low that that system which is to bring in the mil- 
lennium, and which is to fill the world during 
that time, will be as free as can be from the 
contingencies of money and wealth; and that 
for the simple reason that the subjects thereof, 
all of them, will be willing and zealous to obey 
the laws thereof, not for selfish purposes, but 
from the principles of genuine loyalty and ever- 
abiding patriotism. 

Q. But if that kingdom, according to Dan. 
2:44, is to ^^ break in pieces and consume all 
these kingdoms," is it not clear that the king- 
dom of God itself, at one time or another, is to 
become not only warlike and offensive, but even 
exterminatins: in its character? 



THE iMPERiAT. lAtAGK. ■ 2g 

A. Letting the fact that it was to be estab- 
lished without hands mean that it was not to be 
a humanly devised institution at all, but one that 
(jod himself was to establish directly through 
the spirit of prophecy and revelation ; and let- 
ting the fact appear that it was to roll forth by 
means of the same power by which it was estab- 
lished, unto the utter abolishment of all other 
systems, and the fact would necessarily be man- 
ifested that the kingdom of God, in itself, is 
never to become a warlike or an exterminating 
power in the ordinary sense of those terms ; nor, 
in fact, in any sense, except so far as that same 
})Ower by which it was established is to bring on 
the floods, the flames, the storms, the earth- 
quakes, and the pestilence, until not a single 
being in all the earth will be found who will 
not honor, obey and uphold the one peaceful 
government. 

If, according to Zech. 14:14, the Jews are t(^ 
fight at Jerusalem, it will only be to expel an 
invading foe; and if, according to Isa. 1:27, 
Zion is to be redeemed, it will not be through 
the process of war on her part, but through tlie 
judgments of God poured out upon her enemies, 
because her converts are more righteous than 
they. 



30 THE BABYLONIAN LION. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE BABYLONIAN LION. 

Question. Bible expounders being agreed, of 
course, that the golden head of the image which 
the king Nebuchadnezzar saw, and the lion with 
eagle's wings which Daniel saw, should both 
stand for the Babylonian empire, is it not re- 
markable, to say the least, that two objects so 
dissimilar should be chosen to represent the 
same government? 

Answer. IvCtting the golden head of the said 
image mean that while the Babylonian empire, 
as a government, was superior to either of its 
three successors in point of wealth, it was infe- 
rior to either of them in point of strength ; and 
letting the fact of its being compared to a lion 
mean that, as a monarchy, it was bold and dar- 
ing in its warlike exploits, but never satisfied 
with conquest ; and letting the fact of its being 
compared to a lion with eagle's wings mean that, 
as a monarchy, it was not only monarch of the 
world, but so absolute of power as to move and 
to act independently above all things, or without 
regard to the will or the wishes of the high or 



THE BABYLONIAN LION. 3 1 

the low, the few or the many, and it would seem 
that just as it was symbolized, just so it should 
have been, notwithstanding the two objects 
chosen for the purpose were so very dissimilar. 
Q. What application, however, should this 
symbol find in the case of the Babylonians after 
its wings were plucked, and after it was made so 
nearly human as to stand erect as a man, having 
also a man's heart given to it? 

"And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse 
one from the other. The first was like a lion, and had 
eagle's wings : I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, 
and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon 
the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it." — 
'Dan. 7:3-4. 

Ai Letting the lion with its wings plucked off 
mean Babylonia proper after it had been reduced 
from an absolute monarchy to a mere depend- 
ency ; and letting the lion with its wings plucked 
off, and the fact of its having been lifted up from 
the earth, mean Babylonia as a government, 
after it had been completely debarred from hav- 
ing any voice in, or control of, any of its own 
statutory affairs ; and letting the fact that the 
lion was lifted uj) from the earth, and a man's 
heart given to it mean that after Babylonia had 
been reduced from being the chief state in the 
worhl's eni|)ire to a state of tlic most abject sub- 



THE BABYLONIAN LION. 



jugation, it became all at once very humanita- 
rian, just as any t}'rant would do after he is 
made to exchange his power, exercised in oppres- 
sion, for the most menial servitude under the 
power of others, and we should have just about 
what was true of the Babylonians after the sun 
of their empire had set forever. 



THE MEDO-PERSIAN BEAR. ;^;^ 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE MEDO-PERSIAN BEAR. 

Question. Inasmuch as commentators are 
generally agreed that the bear mentioned in 
Dan. 7:5, and the ram mentioned in Dan. 8:^, 
should each and either of them represent the 
Medo-Persian empire, should they not be able to 
show wherein two objects so dissimilar in form 
and kind, might be so used? 

Answer. Supposing the Medo-Persian em- 
pire as a government to have been like the bear, 
greatly prone to the conquesting ^of others for 
the express purpose of devouring their substance 
for their own subsistence; and letting the fact 
that the bear ^'raised up itself on one side," 
mean that the Persians were the dominant race 
over the Medes in the affairs of their joint gov- 
ernment; and letting the ram that was seen 
^'pushing westward and northward and south- 
ward, so that no beast might stand before him," 
mean that the chief policy of the Medes and 
Persians, from first to last, was to be never at 
peace with any power known to them that would 
dare refuse certain reverence for their own name, 



34 THE MEDO-PERSIAN BEAR. 



or neglect to be at least retreating in their own 
presence, and we should have what was true of 
the Medes and Persians, in spite of the little or 
no similarity in kind and character between the 
two beasts chosen to symbolize their government. 

Q. What are we to understand by the three 
ribs in the mouth of the bear, and also by the 
fact of their saying unto it, ^^\rise, devour 
much fleshi"' That is, thus said the ribs to the 
bear, of course ? 

A. Letting the three ribs mean the three 
countries then called Babylonia, Assyria and 
Syria, which Syria at that time included Pales- 
tine, the lanc^ of the Jews; and letting the fact 
that the three ribs were in the mouth of the 
bear, and between its teeth, mean that the said 
three countries w^ere not only as completely 
in the power of the Medo-Persian government as 
could be, but that they were also as completely 
strip]3ed of their substance as could be, by and 
for the support of the government, and w^e 
should have, if not the intent, at least what w^as 
true of the once heartless Chaldean, the once 
boastful Assyrian, the once rebellious Israelite, 
and the government that oppressed them. 

(^. But what explanation is possible for the 



i 



THE MEDO-PERSIAN BEAK. 



fact that those being in the very jaws of the op- 
pressor are yet made to importune him to ^' arise, 
and devour much flesh? " 

A. This much at least, that there is no relief 
more certain for the sorely oppressed than the 
fact of their oppressors being extensively at war 
with their enemies abroad, for the express pur- 
pose of making them a spoil and a prey. Nor 
is this circumstance itself wanting in hope for 
the oppressed, on the very grounds that it may 
open up the way for their own full deliverance. 



36 THE MACEDONIAN HE-GOAT. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE MACEDONIAN HE-GOAT. 

Question. It being generally conceded, of 
course, amongst those who pretend to know, 
that in Dan. 7:6 and Dan. 8:5, 8, the Macedo- 
nian empire was the power intended, is it possible 
for two objects so wide of resemblance to have 
been wisely chosen as the emblems of one and 
the same power? As to the resemblance between 
a four-headed, four-winged leopard and a one- 
horned or a four-horned he-goat, it would be 
our privilege of course to decide. 

Answer. Letting the four heads of the leop- 
ard mean those four joint monarchies into which 
the Macedonian empire was divided after its es- 
tablishment; and letting its four wings mean that 
the said four monarchies, each and either of 
them, were of the absolute form, notwithstand- 
ing they belonged to one and the same great sys- 
tem; and letting the fact appear that as one 
great system they were not unlike the leopard, 
on the very account that they were ever on the 
hunt for the prey, if through no other cause 
than a thirst for blood and the sheer pleasure of 



THE MACEDONIAN HE-GOAT. 37 

seeing others writhe under the lacerations of 
their own power, and we should ascribe just such 
traits to the system as such, as its history will 
portray. 

Q. But an he-goat being a beast not of posi- 
tiv^el}' ignoble traits, would we not, in giving it a 
likeness in the Macedonian system, ha\'e to as- 
cribe to that system traits that were commend- 
able more than otherwise? 

A. In Dan. 8:5, letting the appearance and 
movements of the he-goat represent not only the 
marvelous speed with which Alexander the Great 
passed his armies from his native country over 
to the Granicus, but also a trait that was to fol- 
low the Macedonian system throughout, namely, 
the trait of seeking for victory in warlike ex- 
ploits, not so much by the force of numbers as 
by the speed of the march and the sudden as- 
sault, and letting the he-goat, with its notable 
horn between its eyes, mean the Macedonian 
empire during the personal reign of its founder, 
Alexander the Great; and in Dan. S:8, letting 
its four notable horns, which came up instead of 
its single one, mean that after the death of Alex- 
ander the Great his empire was passed under 
the reign of four different and cotemporaneous 



7,8 THE MACEDONIAN HE-GOAT. 

kings, from whom sprang so many lines of kings 
which held cotemporaneous power over the sys- 
tem considered as one, and we should only as- 
cribe that which was true of the system from 
first to last, letting that ascription be commend- 
able or otherwise. 

But why criticise the eternal word, except we 
can propose some better wa}', or a way in this 
particular case more excellent than that which 
was shown to the holy Daniel by that power 
which searches all things, and which can discern 
the end from the beginning? 



n 



THE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST. 39 



CHAPTER X. 



THE ROMISH DREADFUL HEAST. 

Question. Notwithstanding the general be- 
lief amongst Bible men that the beast described 
in Dan. 7:7 should represent the Roman em- 
pire, is the comparison a just one? Rather, was 
not that empire as a government, according to 
historians generally, unequaled in that sort of 
greatness that is worthy to be admired and imi- 
tated? 

Answer. While it was true that the Ro- 
manised people of that empire, generally, were 
very lustful of that which they considered high- 
toned and pre-eminent, and took great pride in 
chivalric and military matters, it is not true on 
that account that they were a great people, or 
qualified thereby to run a commendably great 
government, but cpiite to the reverse. For just 
as certainly as their lust for greatness in that 
which they called great would lead them amongst 
themselves to seek for high positions, if need 
be through the use of foul means, just so would 
their pride in their military affairs, and in the 
fame of victories won, lead them even to wel- 



40 THE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST, 



come the pretext to subjugate others, if only to 
perpetuate the veriest dread for the Roman 
soldier and the Roman name. 

And not only this, but as the very pride whicli 
the Roman soldier took in his profession, and 
as the very pride which the people in general 
took in the war history of their country, would 
necessarily prepare them at first for the behold- 
ing of barbarous deeds, so would the same pride 
lead them at last to even seek entertainment in 
scenes of blood and carnage. Were thev not 
the people whose thousands so often met in their 
great Coliseum, expressly to be entertained with 
scenes of deadly conflict between man and man, 
and between man and ferocious beasts? Were 
they not the people whose capital punishment 
was the crucifixion^ Were they not the people 
who tortured Christians with all barbarous in- 
ventions? If they were, why should not thev 
and their government be compared to a beaJt 
"dreadful and terrible-' and so unnatural as to 
be armed with nails and teeth made of iron and 
brass? 

"Then T would know the tnuh of the fourth benst 
wh.ch was <liverse from all the others, exceeding drea.l- 
ful. whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass, which 



I 



THE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST. 4I 



r 



devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with 
his feet." Dan. 7:19. 

Q. But what propriety was there in declar- 
ing it to be diverse from all the beasts that were 
before it, when, in the very event that it was 
used to designate a fourth power, would require 
that it should be diverse from them? Should 
inspiration be expected to indulge in tautolog}? 

A. But if one thing would be diverse from 
another, although it should differ from it in no 
more than one particular, it would certainly be 
diverse from it should it be unlike it in every 
particular. Or, substantially, if the one dread- 
ful and terrible beast had no resemblance what- 
ever to a lion, to a bear, or to a leopard, nor 
yet to that particular lion, bear, or leopard that 
was before it, then was it diverse from them in 
the sense of being unlike them altogether. 

And this no doubt was the intent, wholely so, 
in its application to imperial Rome, which was 
evidently, as a government, so completely di- 
verse from the Babylonian, the Medo- Persian 
and the Macedonian empires as governments as 
to resemble neither of them in an\' one parti(Mi- 
lar fully. 

While in its effect, im])erial Rome as a gov- 



42 THE ROMISH nREADFUI, HEAST. 



ernment was very monarchical, it was yet re- 
publican in form: and while it was certainly 
regal in Us powers, it was not coronate in prac- 
tice; and while its laws seemed to insure great 
privileges and protection to its citizen, it could 
nevertheless outlaw him without law if it chose, 
just as the veriest despotism might do. 

Q. But is it history that out of the Roman em- 
pire sprang so many as ten separate kingdoms 
all at once, as Daniel's so-called interpreter in 
Dan. 7:24 seems to allege? 

A. But how else could his interpreter have ex- 
pressed himself, although it was really to be al- 
most two centuries from the time the western 
Roman empire began to be broken up until it 
was wholly lost in a certain stage of its own dis- 
memberment? 

Q. But would not this plan make out, so far as 
the symbol of all was concerned, that no sooner 
had its head of horns been fully prepared, than 
the chief part of its real self had ceased to ex- 
ist? Or, for the Roman power to have existed 
on and on, was it only necessary to call it the 
Roman empire? 

A. But commencing with the reign of Con- 
stantine the Great, was not Byzantium the seat 



I 



THE ROMISH DREADFUL HEAST. 43 



of government for the Roman empire? And do 
not historians account that it was still the Ro- 
man empire with Byzantium for its capitol and 
not the city of Rome? Indeed, do they not sub- 
stantially record that it must have been still the 
Roman empire all the way from 330 A. D., the 
time at which Byzantium became its capitol, to 
395, the time of its division into the so-called 
eastern and western Roman empires, with Arca- 
dius reigning over the east and Honorius over 
the west? And moreover, do they not definitely 
speak of those divisions under the name and 
style of the eastern and western Roman em- 
pires, if no further down than 476, the time at 
which its western division became lost in a cer- 
tain stage of its own dismemberment, or divis- 
ion into separate governments? 

But if the Roman empire, after having been 
called such for more than three and a half cen- 
turies, could change its seat of empire from the 
so-called eternal city to that of Byzantium, 
(Constantinople), and still be the Roman em- 
pire; that is, if this Byzantium empire was still 
the Roman empire up to the very extinction of 
the so-called western Roman empire, why might 
it not have been such further on, or as far down 
4 



44 THE ROMISH DREADFUL HEASt. 

as T204, at which time, according to current his- 
tory, it became or was made through the Cru- 
sades, what was called the Latin empire? In 
other words, if it was the Roman empire at one 
time why not at another, having Byzantium and 
not the city of Rome for its capitol? Nor would 
the trouble end here, for could it have been the 
Roman empire at one time, yet being called 
something else, w^hy could it not have been such 
throughout the half century and more that it 
w^as called the Latin empire? And verily, if 
we were to have it the Roman empire on down 
to the time that the Turks made it their empire, 
and Constantinople the capitol thereof in 1453, 
and from thence again on down to the present 
time, w^hat would the plan be but the carrying 
out of that sort of analogy that historians them- 
selves have perpetrated? 

Q. What is the idea therefore? Are w^e to 
adopt the plan as being analogically correct, no 
matter how historically absurd it may be ? 

A. While it may not be true in name that 
the Roman empire continued to be such after its 
western division had been resolved into so many 
separate governments, it is not true in Daniel's 
sense that it has yet ceased to exist as an aggre- 



I'HE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST. 45 



gate power in some form or other, and under a 
phase of some sort that is still Romish. 

Indeed, finding as we do, that those several 
chief powers that now stand where once stood 
the old Romish imperial system as a whole, do 
yet, more or less, wear the old Roman phase, 
and that the one in particular answering to that 
particular horn of the symbol ^Miaving eyes like 
the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great 
things," does so expressly still wear the ^'look 
more stout than his fellow^s, " we ought to be at 
no loss to detect the fact that, in the meaning of 
Daniel's interpreter, the Roman power in some 
form or other was to be extended on and on, 
even after it had ceased to be such in name. Or, 
if we may so put the matter, if those several 
chief powers into which the old Romish imperial 
system as a whole was converted, no matter what 
the name of each has been, and no matter what 
their governmental or political changes have 
been, do still have a plainly Romish resem- 
blance, we ought to be at no loss to apprehend 
that Daniel's fourth beast, in its general applica- 
tion, should at least reach to our time, if not 
further on, or until, as in Dan. 7:26, its domin- 
ion is to be taken away, and from that time to 
be consumed more and more to the end. 



46 THE RO^ilSH DREADFUL BEASt. 

Q. But. looking over those countries where 
once stood the Roman empire in its greatness, 
what power is there now found answering to the 
said horn, which had eyes like the eyes of man. 
and a mouth that spake great things? Dan. 7:8. 

A. Putting it down that not later than 666 
A. D.. tlie old Romish imperial system as a whole 
had been resolved into as many as ten chief sej)- 
arate governments, and putting it down also that 
not later than that date certain humanly devised 
theocratic systems had been fully inaugurated in 
the midst of or amongst the said chief govern- 
ments; and putting it down withal that while the 
eyes of the said horn, which were like the eyes of 
man. should represent the said humanly devised 
theocratic systems, the horn itself entire should 
represent them not only under their kingly phase, 
but also under their apocalyptically unific sense, 
we should only suggest what was and is substan- 
tially true, notwithstanding we could so earnestly 
wish to shun the view and avoid the plan. 

Q. What are we to understand by the fact 
that the eyes of the said horn were like the eyes 
of man? and also by the fact that its mouth, as 
in Dan. 7:25, was to ^^ speak great words against 
the Most Hisfh?'' 



THE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST. 47 

A. Letting the fact that its eyes were like the 
eyes of man mean that those theocratic systems 
represented thereby were not only humanl}' de- 
vised, but were also to be under the direction of 
human intelligence and cunning, instead of divine 
wisdom, equity and justice; and letting the fact 
that its mouth was to speak great words against 
the Most High mean that the ministers of the 
said systems were to be gifted especially in the 
art of public declamation; and putting it down 
withal that in the exercise of that gift they were 
to put forth their great words against the Most 
High, their great words against Him to consist 
in their misrepresentations of Him, His words 
and His ways, and we shoiild have, as far as it 
goes, what has ever been true of those s}'stems, 
and many of their ministers, in spite of our 
earnest desires to ha\'e the affair, all told, to mean 
somebody or something else. 

But let us see. As to the putting forth of 
great words against the Most High, who could 
be referred to more certainly than certain theo- 
cratic declaiming officials, who, for the very cause 
of their being destitute of the power of godli- 
ness, wouhl endeavor to cause all their words to 
sound very great, and to ai)pear \'ery great, from 



48 THE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST. 

the simple fact of their being dropped from their 
own lips? 

But would the evil end here? If thev would 
dare indulge in the greatness of words for effect, 
would they not dare, as a matter of course, 
through their great words, to impress themselves 
upon the unsuspecting as being possessed of pre- 
rogatives and authorities divine? And if so, 
what would they be in comparison of the symbol 
more or less than an aggregate mouth, speaking 
great things against the Most High ? For really, 
how can the words of him who seeks his own 
glory and honor be for his God or for His praise ? 

Q. ^Vhat are we to understand by a stout 
look? Or rather how could any system, or set 
of systems of whatever sort, be said to have a 
look more stout than certain others? 

A. In comparing church officials, generally, 
of a certain rank, with state officials generally, 
of an equal rank, which set would be found 
wearing a look more stout than the rest? But 
as church officials are supposed to be commis- 
sioned under the higher law. therefore, just as 
might be expected, would they wear a look more 
commandant of attention than would those whose 
commissions are only derived from a temporal 



THE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST. 49 

law, and that for only a limited term, or a term 
commensurate with good behavior. 

And of course, therefore, if the ministers of 
the aforesaid theocratic systems could be ac- 
counted as their aggregate mouthpiece, just so 
could their nature and spirit be accounted as 
the nature and spirit of their systems; and so 
much so indeed, that whatever look would char- 
acterize them as officials would, under this al- 
legory, characterize their systems, so far at least 
as systematic manifestations are concerned. 

Indeed, to show that a theocratic system, as 
such, might have a look of its own, and a stout 
one, we have only to contemplate the fact that 
even its structures of service, with the fixtures 
and furniture thereof, would be made so impos- 
ing as to forbid through great but silent words 
that any should dare (piestion its authority, its 
doctrines and measures. 

Q. But if Dan. 7:25, should mean the said 
humanly devised systems, would it not be con- 
tradictory to say the least, that they were to 
speak against the Most High, to wear out His 
saints and to change His laws? AV'ould they not 
rather, being theocratic, have to honor Him, to 
foster His saints and to uphold His laws? 



50 THE ROMISH DREADFUL BEAST. 

A. But seeing that a theocratic people them- 
selves might so far depart from the true idea of 
God as that many, if not most, of the great 
words that they would presume to say for Him 
would be really against Him; and seeing that they 
might so far depart from the true idea of the 
saint as to regard him as the worst enemy of 
the religion which they profess; and seeing it 
would be possible for their officials, after being 
so far deceived, to think themselves fully compe- 
tent to say where and when such and such times 
and seasons should fall, and how they should be 
observed; and seeing that, after they had gone 
thus far, it would be possible for them to be- 
think themselves well qualified to alter and amend 
laws divine; and seeing what we do see in look- 
ing backward through those countries that have 
and do now stand where once stood the old 
Romish imperial system as a whole, does it not 
look suspicious, to say no more, that the notori- 
ous horn of Daniel" s fourth beast was designed 
to represent no less than those theocratic sys- 
tems that have all the while been so intimately 
and strangely interwoven throughout those chief 
powers, occupant where once stood notorious 
Rome, dreadful Rome, in its greatness? 



THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 51 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 

Question. Amongst other peculiarities of 
the rough goat of Dan. 8:9-12, why should its 
little horn with its surprising outcome be passed by 
as being unimportant ? And yet what confidence 
is to be had in the affair, after all, when Bible 
men themselves differ so widely in regard to it, 
some claiming that by it Antiochus Epiphanes 
with his Assyrian forces was meant: others that 
Titus Caesar with his Roman legions was meant; 
and others again, that probably Mahomet with 
his Saracens was meant ? 

Answer. But if the matter is to be rejected 
as being neither sensible nor worthy because 
men differ in regard to it, how much of all that 
is historic amongst men would be worthy of all 
confidence? 

As to the fact that the great horn between the 
eyes of the rough goat meant Alexander the 
Great and his empire during his personal reign, 
Bible men do not differ. As to the fact also that 
the four horns of the rougli goat meant those 
four monarchies, and a line of kini^s for eacli, 



52 THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 

into which Alexander's empire was divided after 
his day, Bible men are agreed. As to the fact 
again, that one Cassander was the first of a line 
of kings that reigned over Macedon, then one of 
the chief states of the Macedonian system; and 
that one Lysimachus was the first of a line of 
kings that reigned over Thrace, then one of the 
chief states of that system; and that one Seleucus 
was the first of a line of kings that reigned over 
Syria, then one of the chief states of the said 
system; and that one Ptolemy was the first of a 
line of kings that reigned over Egypt, then only 
one of the chief states of that system, Bible men 
can hardly disagree. And moreover, that the 
little horn of the rough goat was designed to rep- 
resent the king of the fierce countenance pre- 
sented in Dan. 8:23, Bible men of course will not 
question. But it being- a question of two or 
more sides, as to which one of the four horns of 
the rough goat its little horn sprang, it would be 
rather a surprise that Bible men should not differ 
in regard to it, seeing that they, like other men, 
may contract erroneous views in regard to many 
things. 

But supposing its four horns were called (i) 
its Cassandrian horn, (2) its Lysimachian horn. 



THE ROMISH CRKSCTVE HORN. 53 

(3) its Seleucidean horn, and (4) its Ptolemian 
horn; and if, as before held, its four horns 
sliould mean those four monarchies, and line 
of kings for each into which the Macedonian 
system as a whole was divided; and if Seleucus 
was the first of a line of kings that reigned over 
Syria; and if Syria was the same monarchy 
when Antiochus Epiphanes reigned over it that 
it was when Seleucus reigned over it, then was 
the said Antiochus not the little horn of the 
rough goat at all, but only a part of one of its 
four notable ones, to wit, its Seleucidean horn. 
And inasmuch, moreover, as the word king in 
Bible terminology more than frequently means 
the whole line of kings that may have reigned 
from first to last over this or that kingdom, and 
inasmuch as the little horn of the rough goat, 
from its very description, was designed to in- 
clude a whole line of rulers that were to be gen- 
erally characterized by the fierce countenance 
and the understanding of dark sentences, there- 
fore was the said Antiochus not that horn, he 
having been an individual king only. 

And again if, according to Dan. 8:23, the 
king of the fierce countenance was not to stand 
u\) until the transgressors had come to the full; 



54 '^HE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 

that is, until the Jews had come to a fiiUness in 
their rebellions, Titus Caesar likewise was not 
that horn, the Jews having come to a fullness in 
their transgressions years before his promotion. 
Nor was Mahomet that horn, for the reason that 
his career began not for several centuries after 
the transgressors had come to the full. 

But if, according to Dan. S:2i,, the trans- 
gressors were to come to the full in tlie latter 
time of the ^Macedonian system as a whole, we 
should therefore have to look to a period of time 
past the half-way point between the establish- 
ment of that system, say in 331 B. C, and the, 
establishment of the Roman imperial system, I 
say in 31 B. C, as the time at which the trans- j 
gressors came to the full, and therefore the time ' 
at which the king of the fierce countenance was j 
to stand up; in other words, the time at which ^ 
a line of rulers was to set in, whose members 
were to be characterized by the fierce counte- 
nance, and the understanding of dark sentences, 
and who were, as in Dan. 8:24, to destroy won- 
derfully, but not by their own power. 

And as it turns out that the year 63 B. C, 
was about the time that the Jews and their coun- 
try were given into the hands of, and were made 



THE ROMISH CRESClVE HORN. 55 

tributary to the Romans, and also about the 
time that Julius Caesar became the chief member 
of Rome's great triumvirate, and from which 
he arose to be its first emperor in effect if not 
in name, therefore was that about the time that 
the transgressors came to the full, meaning the 
Jews, and about the time that the king of the 
fierce countenance stood up, meaning Rome's 
imperial line with Julius C?esar for its com- 
mencement or first member. 

At all events, if Rome's emperors were gener- 
ally not characterized by the fierce countenance, 
and the understanding of dark sentences, (sen- 
tences which express much and explain but lit- 
tle,) then what line of rulers in all past history 
was thus characterized? And finally, who more 
than Rome's emperors ever destroyed so won- 
derfully, and that by a power not their own? 
In the great past, if other kings and potentates 
destroyed wonderfully, that was done through 
tlieir own power and not through the power of 
tlie state, as was the case with the members of 
Rome's imperial line. 

l^>ut after the Jews had been passed under 
their yoke, because of their rebellions against 
their God, from time to time were they raided 



56 THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 



and spoiled by them, until at last by them their 
great city was sacked, their famous temple de- 
stroyed, and themselves compelled, at last, alto- 
gether to abandon their country, and that for 
centuries to come. 

As it is had in Deut. 28:49-64, '^The Lord 
shall bring a nation against thee from far, from 
the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; 
a nation whose tongue thou shalt not under- 
stand; a nation of fierce countenance, which 
shall not regard the person of the old, nor show 
favor to the young; and he shall eat the fruit of 
thy cattle and the fruit of thy land, until thou 
be destroyed; which also shall not leave thee 
either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy 
kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have de- 
stroyed thee. And he'shall besiege thee in all 
thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come 
down, wherein thou trustedst throughout all thy 
land, and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates 
throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy 
God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat tlie 
fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons 
and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God 
hath given thee, in the siege, in the straitness, 
wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee; so 



THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 57 

that the man that is tender among you, and 
very delicate, his eye shall be evil towards his 
brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and 
toward the remnant of his children which he 
shall leave; so that he will not give to any of 
them of the flesh of his children whom he shall 
eat; because he hath nothing left him in the siege, 
and in the straightness, wherewith thine enemies 
shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender 
and delicate woman among you, which would 
not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon 
the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her 
eye shall be evil toward the husband of her 
bosom, and toward her son, and toward her 
daughter, and toward her young one that com- 
eth out from between her feet, and toward her 
children which she shall bear; for she shall eat 
them for the want of all things secretly in the 
siege and straightness, wherewith thine enemies 
shall distress thee in thy gates. If thou wilt 
not observe to do all the words of this law that 
are written in this book, that thou mayest fear 
this glorious and fearful name, the Lord thy 
God; then the Lord will make thy plagues won- 
derful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great 
plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sick- 



5§ THt: ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 



ness, and of long continuance. Moreover he 
will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt, 
which thou Avast afraid of; and they shall cleave 
unto thee. Also every sickness, and every plague 
which is not written in the book of this law, 
them will the Lord bring upon thee, until thou 
be destroyed. And ye shall be left few in num- 
ber, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for 
multitude; because thou wouldst not obey the 
voice of the Lord thy God. And it shall come 
to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to 
do you good, and to multiply you; so shall the 
Lord rejoice over you to destroy you, and to 
bring you to naught; and ye shall be plucked 
from oif the land whither thou goest to possess 
it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all 
people, from the one end of the earth even unto 
the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, 
which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, 
even wood and stone."' 

Q. But is it not im])ortant, if knowable, to 
know from which one of the four horns of this 
symbol its little horn sprang? In other words, 
from which one of the sub-divisions of the 
Macedonian system was the Roman power de- 
rived, provided it was in fact derived from either 
of them? 



THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 59 

A. Let I. Mace. 1 11-9 answer inferentially at 
least: ^^And it happened after that Alexander, 
son of Phillip, the Macedonian, who came out of 
the land Chettiim, had smitten Darius, king of the 
Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, 
the first over Greece, and made many wars, and 
won many strongholds, and slew the kings of 
the earth, and went through to the ends of the 
earth, and took spoils of many nations, inso- 
much that the earth was quiet before him; w^here- 
upon he was exalted, and his heart was lifted up. 
And he gathered a mighty, strong host, and ruled 
over countries, and nations, and kings, who be- 
came tributaries unto him. And after these 
things he fell sick and perceived that he should 
die. Wherefore he called his servants, such as 
were honorable, and had been brought up with 
him from his youth, and parted his kingdom 
among them, while he was yet alive. So Alex- 
ander reigned twelve years, and then died. And 
his servants bare rule, every one in his place. 
And after his death they all put crowns upon 
themselves; so did their sons after them many 
years: and evils were multiplied in the earth." 

But if the earth was then quiet before him, 
and if the kings of the earth were tributary to 



6o THE ROMISH CRESLTVE HORN. 

him, where was Italy and the Romans, that they 
should not have been a part of his conquest, 
seeing that they had already existed as a power 
for more than four centuries down to the time of 
his death? But if they were a part of his great 
empire at that time, were they not of course a 
part of one of those four joint monarchies into 
which his empire was resolved after his demise? 

That the Romans were not a part of Ptolemy's 
dominions seems evident from the fact of the 
separation of Italy from Egypt by the Mediterr 
ranean Sea. That they were not a part of the 
dominions of Seleucus is more than probable in 
view of the distance from Italy to Syria by land 
or by sea. That they belonged not to the do- 
minions of Lysimachus is very certain from the 
fact that Macedon. the chief state of Cassan- 
der's dominions, laid directly between Italy and 
Thrace. But that they belonged to the domin- 
ions of Cassander if ever to another power, we 
are even required to believe from the relative 
positions and nearness of Italy and Macedon one 
to the other, no matter whether those historians 
who would have the Romans honorable forever 
are willing to so record it or not. 

And therefore to sav that the little horn of 



I 



THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 6l 



Paniel's rough goat came forth from its Cas- 
sandrian horn; in other words, that the Roman 
power came forth from the Cassandrian mon- 
archy, in the sense of having freed itself there- 
from, is to say that which is simple and tangible, 
and scripturally true, no matter what the state- 
ments may be of those who most persistently 
glory in Rome, presumptuous Rome. 

Q. But did not the Roman power wax great 
toward the west, as well as toward the south and 
the east, notwithstanding the implication in Dan. 
8:9, that the said little horn was to wax great 
toward the south and the east only? 

A. But as we should notice particularly, not 
^^great" simply, but ^'exceeding great," is the 
language of the text. But if the Roman power 
was indeed meant, does it follow that because it 
was to wax exceeding great toward the south, 
and the east, and the pleasant land, that there- 
fore its power was not to be extended toward 
the west at all? Is it not a fact, rather, that 
while the Roman power was extended far to the 
west, its greatness only waxed intense towards 
the south, the east and the pleasant land, the 
land of the Jews? 



62 THE ROxMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 

Q. But whereas, in Dan. 8:io, ii, this re- 
markable horn was to wax so great as to vie with 
the hosts of heaven, and to cast down some of 
the host and of the stars to the ground, and was 
finally to so magnify itself as to presume to cope 
with the prince of the host of heaven, can't we 
see that such magnificence at once explodes the 
idea of an earthly power being meant at all? 

A. But the facts in the case being that the 
Roman power did not only w^ax so great toward 
the south, the east, and the pleasant land, as to 
end in the blotting out of the kingdom of the 
Jews, but that it did thereafter, under the ad- 
ministration of Constantine the Great and others 
after him, when it had exchanged its Polytheism 
for Christianity, so magnify its authority in the 
affairs of the church as to make it next to im- 
possible for any church official to be such, or to 
continue as such, without the indorsement of 
the state; and that, even in the. person of the 
emperor, it so magnified itself as to constitute 
him, in effect if not in name, the head of the 
church — that is, the prince of the host; there- 
fore was the Roman power meant, the power of 
magnifical, dreadful Rome. 



THE ROMISH CRESCTVE HORN. 63 



Q. But whereas, in Dan. 8:ii, it was to' 'mag- 
nify itself even to the prince of the host," and 
in Dan. 8:25 was to ''stand up against the 
Prince of Princes," is it not a fact that the vision 
itself is out of joint'with its interpretation? Or 
rather, if it was to magnify itself unto the prince 
of the host, and was yet to stand up against the 
Prince of Princes, w^hat sense is there in the 
aifair, all told ? 

A. But the sum of the matter being that if 
the Roman power was the power whose king, in 
its aggregate or lineal sense, was to be charac- 
terized by the fierce countenance and the under- 
standing of dark sentences, as was the case with 
Romish rulers as far down at least as where the 
Romish system as such was merged into its plu- 
monarchic or present form; and if the Roman 
power was the power that was to destroy so 
•'wonderfully," as it did especially in the case of 
the Jews and their famous city and temple; and 
if the Roman power was the power that was to 
"destroy the mighty and the holy people," and 
whom it destroyed so greatly all the way no 
doubt from the days of Christ to the full acces- 
sion of Constantine the Great; and after all this, 
if the Roman power was the power that was to 



64 THE ROMISH CRESCIVE HORN. 



cause craft to prosper in its hand — in other 
words, the power that was to make the church 
a thing of the state, and therefore the power 
that was to cause theocratic priestcraft to pros- 
per in its hand, and which thing it has ever done 
from its entrance upon its plumonarchic state to 
the present time; and if the Roman power is the 
power that is yet to stand up against the Prince 
of Princes — in other words, the power whose 
armies are yet to meet Christ and His army, lit- 
erally and personally, but whose armies Christ 
will not engage, except to destroy them by the 
power of His Word — then was that the power 
that was not only to magnify itself unto the 
prince of the host, but also the power that was, 
or is, to stand up against the Prince of Princes 
and to be broken without hand. 

"And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the 
transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce counte- 
nance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. 
And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; 
and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and 
practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy peo- 
ple. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to 
prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his 
heart, and by peace shall destroy many; he shall also 
stand up against the Prince of Princes; but he shall be 
broken without hand." Dan. 8:23-25. 



II 

II 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 65 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 

Question. As to the seven heads of the beast 
mentioned in Rev. 13:1, is it not true that while 
Bible men are not agreed amongst themselves as 
to what they might mean, each one is scarcely 
satisfied with his own opinions in regard to their 
import? 

Answer. In regard to the fact that the four 
heads of the Prophet DanieFs four-headed leop- 
ard should mean those* four chief governments 
into which the Macedonian system was divided 
after the days of its founder, Bible men will 
not question. But as to the position that the 
seven heads of the Apostle John's seven-headed 
leopard should mean that the old Romish im- 
perial system as a whole was divided into that 
many chief separate governments against a cer- 
tain time, and that it was to continue to be 
divided on an average into that many chief sepa- 
rate governments on down to its final close out, 
some Bible men may object; which, however, 
they should not do, unless they can propose 
some plan that is more systematic, and more in 



66 THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 



harmony with the conditions of the symbol all 
told. 

But can it be fairly questioned in the light of 
history, that, at no time this side of 666 A. D., 
has that particular part of the earth's surface, 
where once stood the old Romish imperial sys- 
tem in its greatness, been wanting, for about 
seven chief separate governments, although they 
may have changed their respective boundaries 
from time to time in regard to each other, and 
although the names of all of them may not 
have remained throughout, just what they are 
to-day? 

Q. But how would it sound to speak of the 
name of blasphemy as being inscribed upon 
those several great governments, that have now 
been standing for centuries where once stood 
the Roman empire as a whole? 

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a 
beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten 
horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads 
the name of blasphemy." 

A. But whereas, the estabhshed religion of 
each of those governments have ever been, as 
far back at least as 666, of the theocratic sort; 
and whereas, the name of the established relig- 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 67 

ion of any government is the religious name of 
that government; and whereas, the name of a 
humanly devised theocratic system of religion 
is the name of blasphemy, on the very ground 
of its being honored by its adherents as of di- 
vine authority; whereas, is it not, therefore, is it 
agreed that the religious name of those several 
chief governments into which the old Romish 
imperial system was resolved was the name of 
blasphemy. 

In John 10:33-36, the Jews are made to say 
that Christ blasphemed when he said he was the 
Son of God; that is, he having been in their 
estimation no more than a man, it was blas- 
phemy to them for him to claim to be divine. 
In I. Tim. 1:13, Paul is made to say that, be- 
fore his conversion, he himself had blasphemed 
the name of Christ; and in Acts 26:11, sub- 
stantially, that before that time he had even 
compelled the saints by means of tortures to do 
so. Thus showing, that while it would be blas- 
phemy to berate that which is divine, as though 
it were something undivine, it would also be 
blasphemy to honor that which is undivine as 
though it were something divine. Or in plainer 
terms, if it would be blasphemy to honor a hu- 



68 THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 



manly devised theocratic system as though it 
was of divine authority, it would be blasphemy 
also to denounce the one true and holy religion 
as being no more than a humanly divine affair. 
Or still further, if it would be blasphemy to re- 
fer the manifestations of the Holy Ghost to a 
bad or to a Satanic source, so also would it be 
blasphemy to refer the manifestations of Satanic 
power to a divine source. 

Q. But what has all this to do with ^'the 
name of blasphemy?" Or, are we to under- 
stand, therefore, that ^'the name of blasphemy" 
is a blasphemous name? 

A. While the name Jesus Christ was a sacred 
name in itself, it was, nevertheless, as applied to 
Jesus of Nazareth, the name of blasphemy to 
those Jews who did not believe him to be the 
Christ, nor anything better than the veriest im- 
postor. And while, therefore, the name of any 
theocratic system that we can think of is not in 
itself a blasphemous name, yet the name of any 
humanly devised theocratic religion that we can 
think of is the name of blasphemy to all those 
holy beings who know it to be humanly devised, 
and therefore of no higher authority than the 
presumptuous teachings of uninspired men. 



\ 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 69 

And therefore, to say that the seven heads of 
the Apostle John's seven-headed leopard, with 
the name of blasphemy inscribed upon each, 
should mean those seven chief governments, with 
the established religion of each, that have now 
stood for more than twelve centuries where once 
stood the old Romish imperial system as a whole, 
is to say that the established religions of those 
governments, no matter by what name or names 
they may have been called, have never had a 
higher authenticity than the teachings of unin- 
spired men. 

Rev. 13:1, I. T. , says: ^^And I saw another 
sign in the likeness of the kingdoms of the earth; 
a beast rise up out of the sea, and he stood upon 
the sand of the sea, having seven heads and 
ten horns; and upon his horns ten crowns, and 
upon his heads the name of blasphemy." 

But in what sense was it to stand upon the 
sand of the sea, except in this, that those sev- 
eral governments represented by its heads were 
all to have a frontage on the Mediterranean Sea, 
and on a certain extent of the Atlantic coast, 
and all just as the bounds of the old Romish 
imperial system as a whole would prescribe? 



70 THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 



Q. But under such premises, and according 
to former conclusions, is it not too manifest that 
the seven heads and the ten horns of the pro- 
posed symbol should mean about one and the 
same thing, namely, that set of kingdoms that 
arose upon the ruins of the Roman empire as a 
whole? Is it understood, therefore, that a set 
of heads, or a set of horns either one, may be 
used to represent a set of kingdoms, and that 
just as the fancy of the symbol maker may hap- 
pen to elect? 

A. Letting its heads mean the several chief 
governments into which the old Romish impe- 
rial system as a whole was resolved, say against 
the year 666, and letting its ten horns with so 
many crowns thereon, mean that from time to 
time, counting from the said date on down to 
the present time, that there has been found an 
average of ten crowned rulers reigning over the 
said chief governments, and where is the lack 
of wisdom in the arrangement? 

Q. But this being notably the first case in 
which we have been presented with a single, or 
with a set of horns with crowns thereon, is not 
the fact too patent that the Apostle John has 
either treated the book of Daniel as being de- 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 7 1 



fective in its manner, or else was ignorant of its 
manner, seeing that all symbol horns presented 
therein are uncrowned, and therefore unhonored? 

A. But the gist of the matter being that if 
the spirit of inspiration, through the Prophet 
Daniel, had the right by means of certain horns 
without crowns to symbolize certain governments, 
including a line of kings for each throughout, 
had that same spirit the right through the Apos- 
tle John, by means of ten horns with so, many 
crowns thereon, to symbolize so many individual 
kings, or an average of that many, that were to 
be found reigning from time to time over or 
in the midst of that great family of governments 
that came of the old Romish imperial system as 
a whole? 

Q. What are we to understand by Rev. 13:3? 
'^And I saw one of his heads, as it were wounded 
to death; and his deadly wound was healed; 
and all the world wondered after the beast." 

A. That no sooner had it made its appear- 
ance above the sea than one of its heads ap- 
peared to be, ^^as it were, wounded to death," 
which head most probably meant Italy, seeing 
that against the year 666 the Lombards, by the 
power of the sword, had so fastened their king- 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 



dom upon the country that, as Italy, it not only 
seemed to be lost to its native sons, but so irre- 
trievably so as to bid fair to end in the loss of 
their identity as a race amongst men. 

But whereas, Charlemagne in 774 overthrew 
the kingdom of the Lombards, it was then that 
Italy's death-like wound was healed, and the 
time also that -^all the world wondered after the 
beast," or after that great empire, as the world 
called it, which Charlemagne seemed to establish, 
but which was only a more permanent establish- 
ment of that great family of governments in- 
tended by the seven heads of the proposed symbol. 

Q. What are we to understand by Rev. 13:5 
to the effect that a mouth was given to it, speak- 
ing thus and so, and seeming to be one different 
from, and in addition to, the one resembling that 
of the lion, which, as in Rev. 13:2, it already 
possessed? 

A. If the chief officials of any government 
may be called the aggregate mouth of that gov- 
ernment, and if the chief ministers of any theo- 
cratic system may be called the aggregate mouth 
of that system, therefore, when any government 
adopts any humanly devised theocratic system 
as its established religion it therebv, in the sense 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 73 

of the text, receives an additional mouth, and 
one which, according to the experience of cen- 
turies past, is always addicted to the speaking of 
great things and blasphemies, the great things 
having reference to those things which men call 
great, and their blasphemies having reference to 
this habit which most of the chief ministers of 
all humanly devised theocratic systems have ever 
had, of honoring things which are undivine as 
though they were divine, and of berating things 
which are divine as though they were undivine. 

Q. But is not the position a high-handed 
one, to say the least, that those several great 
governments that now stand within the bounds 
of what was once the domain of imperial Rome 
should be accounted as the summation of a mon- 
ster altogether so dreadful, barbarous, and hate- 
ful as would be a leopard with several heads and 
horns, having the feet of a bear and the mouth 
of a lion, and a name more than dishonorable? 

A. But if the vision was inspired of God, 
what else can be meant ? At least, before we 
reject the plan, should we not propose the sub- 
stitute? But have not these same governments, 
like the leopard, always been on the hunt for the 
prey, and, like that beast, always been willing 



74 THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 

to support themselves upon the blood of the 
helpless ? Have not these same governments, 
like the bear, generally been guilty of making 
captives of the weak, and of making themselves 
fat upon the flesh of others ? Have not these 
same governments, like the lion, always boasted 
themselves in the art of war and in the terror- 
izing of the less powerful, seeming never withal 
to have had enough of conquest and of power? 
And are not these the governments, almost alone, 
that have now for more than twelve centuries 
been the supporters by law of their theocratic 
religions, which in their entirety have not now, 
and never did have, a higher authority than the 
presumptuous teachings of uninspired men, and 
in some instances of designing aspirants? 

Q. Under the stipulations, however, of Rev. 
13:8, are the proposed governments, as the coun- 
terpart of those stipulations, sufficiently great 
in extent to insure in any sense that all who 
dwell upon the earth have ever, or will ever 
worship their power, except those whose names 
are written in the Book of Life? 

A. But is it even necessary that they should 
comprise all the earth in order that all except 
the faithful should worship them? But in view 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 75 



^Fof the vast possessions which they are gaining 
P throughout other portions of the earth, and in 
view of the mighty influence and power which 
they are gaining over ail '^kindreds, tongues and 
nations," and in view of the fact also that it is 
not difficult to induce those who fear men and 
persecution more than they fear God, to wor- 
ship, that is to honor and reverence, that which 
they verily despise; therefore, is it a prophecy, 
at least of cause and effect, that the time may 
not be far distant when all except the sanctified 
that dwell upon the earth, either willingly or un- 
willingly, either directly or indirectly, shall wor- 
ship them, or that seven-headed beastly family 
of governments that now occupy what was once 
the domain of beastly imperial Rome as a whole. 
Q. According to Rev. 13:18, what is the 
number of a man? or rather, what sort of a 
number is that which is not the number of a 
man? 

A. While a number that is not the number 
of a man in regard to time would be a number 
or reckoning ordained of God, a number that is 
the number of a man in that regard would be a 
number or reckoning adopted and brought into 
use by some man. In other words, while the 



76 THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 

expression, ''The number of the beast" should 
mean the number of the year in which it began 
its run of forty-two year-months, or twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years, the expression, ''His num- 
ber is the number of a man,'" should mean that 
666 A. D., the number of the year in which it 
began its run of the said number of years, was 
the number of a man, from the fact of its be- 
ing derived from the plan of some man whereby 
the custom was introduced of numbering the 
years forward from the birth of Christ. 

"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding 
cuunt the number of the beast; for it is the number of a 
man; and his number is six hundred three score and six." 

That is, while the number of the beast was its 
date in the sense of having been the time of its. 
birth, or fullest inauguration, its date was the 
date of a man in the sense of its having been 
derived from the plan, which some man intro- 
duced, of reckoning time or of numbering the 
years forward from the birth of Christ. 

But what are the facts in the case? When, 
rather, was that seven-headed, ten-horned, ten- 
crowned system of governments that now stands 
where once stood the old Romish imperial sys- 
tem as a whole fully inaugurated ? Was it before 
or after 666 A. D.:^ 



THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 7 7 



But as for those who are willing still to hunt 
for some man, the numerals of whose name shall 
spell out just six hundred three score and six, 
will they please tell us, after they have found 
their man, why that should be called the number 
of the man? But if they say that is not it, the 
number expressed by his name not being the 
number of the man, but only the number of his 
name, then we ask. What has that to do with the 
number of the name of the beast? In other 
words, the number of the beast having been six 
hundred and sixty-six, what has that to do with 
the number of its name, which was only seven? 
At all events, as the number of its heads was 
only seven, and as its heads were a representa- 
tion of so many chief political powers, and as 
each of those powers had a name peculiar to 
itself, and therefore, as the number of their 
names altogether was only seven, therefore was 
the number of the political name of the beast 
only seven, and which, of course, comes far 
short of its annular number, which was 666. 

Q. But is it not common for Bible expound- 
ers to make Rev. 13:1, mean pagan Rome as 
they call it, alleging that it was a seven-headed 
system in the sense that it must liave passed 



78 THE ROMISH NUMERIC BEAST. 



through as many as seven different forms of gov- 
ernment as pagan Rome? But if Bible expound- 
ers can thus make just about what they choose 
to make out of Bible symbols, is it a wonder 
that the world has already become so indiffer- 
ent to such things? 

A. But if Bible symbols are to be discarded 
as unworthy of attention, because men happen 
to differ in regard to their irhport, how much of 
all that is written amongst men is worthy of 
man's serious consideration? 

But what is the real question? Plainly was 
this seven-headed leopard merely the emblem of 
so many different forms of government through 
which pagan Rome passed, or was it the emblem 
of so many contemporaneous governments into 
which the old Romish imperial system as a 
whole was finally resolved? If, according to 
Rev. 13:1, I. T. , the said seven-headed leopard 
was a '^sign in the likeness of the kingdoms of 
the earth," what kingdoms were meant? Were 
those different forms of government through 
which it is claimed pagan Rome underwent, the 
kingdoms of the earth? Rather, were not those 
individual contemporaneous governments that 
came of the old Romish imperial system as a 



THE ROMISH NUxMERIC BEAST. 79 



whole, not only the kingdoms of the earth for 
that time, but also the kingdoms of the earth in 
the sense that, as a system, all that dwell upon 
the earth, except the good and the true, are yet 
to worship them, either directly, indirectly, will- 
ingly or unwillingly? 

But inasmuch as pagan Rome ended of course 
where Christian Rome began, which was not later 
than ;^2^ A. D. ; and inasmuch as the system in- 
tended by this symbol was to have a continuance 
of twelve hundred and sixty years; and inas- 
much as that many years back of 323 A. D. 
would extend back of 753 B. C, the time of the 
commencement of pagan Rome, by as many as 
one hundred and eighty-four years; and which 
would mean of course, that for it to have had a 
continuance of twelve hundred and sixty years 
from its commencement, it must have overlapped 
Christian Rome also by one hundred and eighty- 
four years, therefore was pagan Rome not the 
Rome intended by the leopard of Patmos. 

As for those, therefore, who must have it that 
this seven-headed symbol meant pagan Rome, 
will they explain, if they can, in what sense its 
number was six hundred and sixty-six, if such 
was the fact ; or in what sense it had a continu- 



8o IHK RO.MISH XL'.MERIC BEAST. 

ance of twelve hundred and sixty years, pro- 
vided that was the fact? Or would they have us 
throw in its number, and its forty-two year- 
months, as mere matters of fill-up, considering 
that the whole matter is explained in the single 
fact that pagan Rome seemed to have changed 
its form of government about seven times in all ? 

Q. But if pagan Rome ended where Christian 
Rome began, does it not follow that it became 
theocratic Rome in 323, instead of 666, as has 
been prescribed ? 

A. It has not been so prescribed, except in 
the sense that certain humanly devised theo- 
cratic systems were not fully inaugurated in the 
midst of seven-headed, ten-horned, ten-crowned 
Rome earlier than 666 A. D., nor will it be 
questioned, let the matter stand as it may in re- 
gard to pagan Rome, that if Rome was still 
Rome in 666, that Rome in that sense and in 
that form is still here, and very likely will con- 
tinue to be, until it has finished up a run of at 
least twelve hundred and sixty years. 



I 



THE COMING ROMISH BEAST. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE COMING ROMISH BEAST. 

Question. What are we to understand by the 
beast of Rev. 17:3, 7-14? 

Answer. We are to understand it to be the 
beast of Rev. 13:1-8, 17, 18, in the sense that 
like that beast, it is to have seven heads and ten 
horns; in the sense that like that beast, its seven 
heads are to represent those seven chief divisions 
into which the old Romish imperial system, as a 
whole, was resolved; in the sense that like that 
beast, the number of its political name will be 
seven; and in the sense that, like that beast, its 
ten horns are to represent an average of ten 
chief rulers, which Rome is then to have to pre- 
side over its destinies from time to time. But 
while scarlet Rome will be leopard Rome in these 
respects, it will not be leopard Rome in the 
sense, as indicated by its color, that its several 
chief divisions will all be dispensed under a set 
of international or uniform laws that will con- 
stitute them one vast and one mighty allied 
power. Nor will scarlet Rome be leopard Rome, 



82 THE COMING ROMISH BEAST. 



in the sense that its ten chief rulers will be un- 
crowned, notwithstanding they will somehow ex- 
ercise the power of kings. Nor will scarlet 
Rome be leopard Rome, in the sense that being, 
as it will be, one vast republic of republics, none 
of its theocratic systems will be established by 
law, and not more than tacitly tolerated by the 
State. Nor will scarlet Rome be leopard Rome, 
in the sense that it will have no religious name, 
and this from the simple fact that no religion, of 
the theocratic sort, at least, will be a thing of the 
State. Nor will scarlet Rome be leopard Rome 
in the sense that it will be full of names of blas- 
phemy, instead of having such names inscribed 
upon its heads merely, whereby it is indicated 
definitely that none of its theocratic systems will 
be things of the state, but merely things of the 
community at large. 

So that, in a succinct way, while scarlet Rome 
will be leopard Rome in some respects, it will 
not be it in other respects; or, after the manner 
of the text, being Rome that '^was and is not 
and yet is," it will therefore be that state upon 
which apocalyptic Rome, as a whole, is to enter 
after it has finished up its run of twelve hundred 
and sixty years as leopard Rome. 



THE COMING ROMISH BEAST. 8^ 

Q. What are we to understand by the ex- 
pression, ^^He carried me away in the spirit into 
the wilderness? "' 

A. That the Apostle John was transported by 
the Spirit of God from the Isle of Patmos into a 
real wilderness, and that that wilderness should 
represent that political state in which apocalyptic 
Rome is to find itself, after it has ceased to be 
leopard Rome, by becoming scarlet Rome. In 
other words, after Rome shall have lost its 
thrones, and crowns, its royalty and ^ordism, 
and all distinctions of blood, thereby becoming, 
in form at least, one vast republic of republics, 
(though tyrannical in effect they may be, ) its 
state will then be a wilderness one, in the sense 
that it will thus be very completely cast out 
from its old landmarks, which now consist almost 
wholly of its royalty, lordism, and highbloodism. 

Q. What are we to understand by the sen- 
tence, ^^The seven heads are seven mountains" ? 

A. That those seven chief governmental di- 
visions that now constitute leopard Rome are, 
when they become the seven heads of scarlet 
Rome, to be erected into so many mighty moun- 
tain states, in the sense that the land, all of it, 
will be a part of the state itself, and so consoli- 



84 THE COMING ROMISH BEAST. 



dated and heaped up, legally speaking, as to 
make it utterly impossible for it to dispose of any 
of its landed self for any consideration, or under 
any conditions whatever, and which would mean, 
of course, that the land, all of it, will be for the 
people and the whole people, just as the water, 
the air, and the sunshine are for the people. 

Q. What are we to understand by the declara- 
tion, ^^The ten horns which thou sawest are ten 
kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; 
but receive power as kings one hour with the 
beast" ? 

A. That after apocalyptic Rome has contin- 
ued as scarlet Rome, with its ten uncrowned 
rulers, for one millenary hour, which is the 
twenty-fourth part of one thousand years, and 
therefore just forty-one years and eight months, 
it will then assume its last form, and to be com- 
prehended probably under the terms, antitheo- 
cratic-plumonarchic Rome — antitheocratic in 
the sense that its laws will recognize no theocratic 
system of religion, and plumonarchic in the 
sense that its ten chief rulers will then wear 
crowns, and reign as potential kings, under one 
grand alliance, over its seven mountain states, 
which will nevertheless still be so many powers 
distinct one from the other. 



THE COMING ROMISH BEAST. 85 

Q. What are we to understand by the ex- 
pression, ^' There are seven kings; five are fallen, 
and one is, and the other is not yet come: 
and when he cometh, he must continue a short 
space ?". 

A. That apocalyptic Rome was from first to 
last to pass through as many as seven forms of 
government, radically different one from the 
other, and hereby to be called (i) its kingly 
form, (2) its republican form, (3) its pagan im- 
perial form, (4) its Christian imperial form, (5) 
its theocratic plumonarchic form, (6) its anti- 
theocratic plurepublican form and (7) its pro- 
posed antitheocratic plumonarchic form; thus 
making scarlet Rome its sixth form, and there- 
fore one of its seven forms according to the 
text, and which would, of course, introduce the 
idea that the Apostle John, after the manner of 
the vision, must have been transported in the 
order of time down to a point of time where 
leopard Rome is to lose its dominion and where 
scarlet Rome is to be fully inaugurated; so that, 
looking backward through the Roman power 
entire, and as the interpreter would say, ''There 
are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is and 
the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, 



86 THE COMING ROMJSH BEAST. 



he must continue a short space." That is, 
counting from the rise of the Roman power on 
down to the time that leopard Rome is to lose 
its dominion, five forms of apocalyptic Rome 
will have passed away; so that scarlet Rome be- 
ing the Rome that will then be, the Rome that 
will follow scarlet Rome will be the last Rome 
that will ever be and the one of but short dura- 
tion. 

Q. What are we to understand by the ex- 
pression, ^^The beast that was, and is not, even 
he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth 
into perdition? " 

So-called scarlet Rome being meant, of 
course, how, therefore, is it to be the eighth and 
yet of the seventh at one and the same time ? 

A. We are to understand that inasmuch as 
republican Rome itself passed through as many 
as three forms of government that were radically 
different one from the other, that apocalyptic 
Rome, therefore, from beginning to end, may be 
presented under as many as nine forms of gov- 
ernment that were radically different one from 
the other, and hereby to be called (i) its kingly 
form, (2) its aristocratic republican form, (3) its 
democratic republican form, (4) its dictatorial 



I 



THE COMING ROxMISH BEAST. 6j 

republican form, (5) its pagan imperial form, (6) 
its Christian imperial form, (7) its theocratic 
plumonarchic form, (8) its antitheocratic plure- 
publican form and (9) its proposed antitheo- 
cratic plumonarchic form; thus making scarlet 
Rome substantially the eighth form of apocalyp- 
tic Rome in one way, notwithstanding it was 
only the sixth, and, therefore, only of the seven 
in another way. 

At all events, if we may come over the matter 
in a sort of chronological way, if kingly Rome 
took its rise in 753 B. C. and ended in 510 B. 
C, where republican Rome began, and republi- 
can Rome ended in 31 B. C, where pagan im- 
perial Rome began, and if pagan imperial Rome 
ended in 323 A. D., where Christian imperial 
Rome began, and if Christian imperial Rome 
ended in 666 A. D., where the theocratic plumo- 
narchic Rome began, and if theocratic plumo- 
narchic Rome is to end in 1926 A. D., where 
antitheocratic plurepublican Rome is to begin, 
and if antitheocratic plurepublican Rome is to 
end in 1968 A. D., where antitheocratic plumo- 
narchic Rome is to begin, and if antitheocratic 
plumonarchic Rome is to end, say in the short 
space of thirty-one years from its commence- 



S8 THE COMING ROMISH BEAST. 

ment, then will apocalyptic Rome exit the earth 
in 1999 A. D., after a run from first to last of 
full twenty-seven and a half centuries, and as a 
power throughout ever worthy to have been 
symbolized^ as the prophets have done, by some 
object altogether brutish and deaf to the en- 
treaties of true justice and mercy. 



1 



THE GREAT CITY BABYLON.* 89 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE GREAT CIT\ BABYLON. 

Question. In Rev. 17:5 what are we to un- 
derstand by the name Mystery Babylon the 
Great? 

Answer. We are to understand it to be the 
aggregate name for those theocratic systems 
which not only do now, but which are to consti- 
tute one and the same great system, during the 
forty-one years and eight months; that they are 
to become the unwelcome burden of scarlet 
Rome, the Rome that will then be ''the beast 
that was and is not and yet is." 

Q. What force, therefore, should the word 
Mystery have in the premises? 

A. All the force that its etymological signifi- 
cance would justify, the Mystery consisting in the 
fact that those theocratic systems which com- 
pose the Babylon meant are indeed only parts of 
one and the same great system, notwithstanding 
they are so greatly contradictory one to the 
other, and so greatly at war one with the other 
in regard to their respective doctrines, beliefs 



90 THE GREAT CITY BABYLON. 

and practices. Nor does the mystery end here, 
it being laudible with them at all times in case 
of war for their adherents to slay each other in 
battle and to even rejoice in victories won at the 
expense of the shed blood of their fellow theo- 
crats. 

At all events, to make out that certain theo- 
cratic systems are only parts of one and the 
same vast system, notwithstanding they are so 
woefully heterodox one to the other in regard to 
their respective beliefs and practices, is to make 
out that we have found Mystery Babylon as she 
was, and is, and is to be, even that great city of 
religious confusion, whose inhabitants being so 
destitute of the true spirit of brotherly love are 
never so nearly in their true element as when 
the pretext is offered to slay their fellow theo- 
crats for victory and for power. 

Q. But if so-called scarlet Rome as a symbol 
is to be full of names of blasphemy, and is there- 
fore as one vast political system, to be full of its 
undivine theocratic systems either great or small; 
and if Mystery Babylon, as it is now fully made 
out, is to be the summation of those systems, 
are we yet expected to accede to such vagaries 
as being more than the wanderings of some 



THE GREAT CITY BABYLON. 



mind that might have taken some other direction 
just as well ? 

A. But if Mystery Babylon as a symbol is to 
be the representation of a great city and so vast, 
why might she not, after the manner of the 
vision, be the summation, not only of the names, 
but also of those undivine systems themselves^ 
both great and small, that are to enfold their 
millions of votaries throughout that Rome that 
is to be, ''the beast that was, and is not, and 
yet is." 

Q. But if, according to Rev. 17:18, Mystery 
Babylon is to reign over the kings of the earth, 
would not the fact be a reversal of what is now 
true? Is it not a fact in our time that kings 
reign over cities, and not cities over kings? 

A. But Mystery Babylon being a religious 
city, let us not be too sure that she does not in- 
directly, if no further, still reign over the kings of 
the earth. For really, how safe would any 
Romish king now be upon his throne who would 
neither pander to nor laud that sort of theocracy 
that hSppens to be the mode with his -subjects 
in general? 

Q. What are we to understand by the decla- 
ration in Rev. [7:16, to the effect that the ten 



92 THE GREAT CITY BABYLON. 

horns of the beast that carries Mystery Babylon 
are to eat her flesh and to burn her with fire? 

A. That when leopard Rome shall change to 
scarlet Rome, that then its ten chief rulers, be- 
cause of the hatred which they will have for her, 
will begin forthwith to deeply lay those plans 
that will at last close her out forever. 

Q. What are we to understand from Rev. i8: 
9, 15-18, to the effect that the kings of the earth, 
and the merchants thereof, and every shipmaster, 
and all sailors, and all that trade by sea are to 
see the smoke of her burning? Or rather, is it 
not too manifest from all this that no city in 
any sense is or will ever be possible to such 
conditions? 

A. While Mystery Babylon may not be a city 
under the current force of that term, yet is she 
and will be a real city, being composed of in- 
habitants and buildings, just as all inhabited 
cities are. But not being a concentered, but, to 
the contrary, a distributed city, portions of her 
being found in most every city, town and village 
within those countries that are, and ^'ill be 
found within those limits, at least such as the 
old Romish imperial system as a whole would 
prescribe; therefore, will it be no mystery at all 



THE GREAT CITY BABYLON. 93 

when her final calamity shall come, that the 
kings of the earth and all that habitually traverse 
the sea are to behold the smoke of her burning, 
considering, especially, that a few years, at least, 
may be required to effect her complete dispatch- 
ment. 

Q. But what, then, are we to understand by 
the word day as used in Rev. i8:8, and by the 
word hour, as used in Rev. 18:10-19? Or 
rather, why is it that, if only a day of twenty- 
four hours is meant in the one case that more 
than an hour of sixty minutes should be meant 
in the other ? But, although only one vast con- 
centrated city was meant, are we required to be- 
lieve its complete destruction possible in the 
course of no more than one hour of sixty min- 
utes, or even in one whole day of twenty-four 
hours? 

A. Could it be made out that those founda- 
tions were not fully laid which resulted in the 
establishment of Mystery Babylon as a city un- 
til as late as 666 A. D.; and also that she was 
not fully established as Mystery Babylon the 
Great until as late as 968 A. D., and could it be 
made out, furthermore, that her state of ''death, 
mourning and famine" will not be brought to its 



94 



THE GREAT CITY BABYLON; 



fullness before the year 1968, it would then ap- 
pear that in just one thousand years, or in one 
millenary day from her complete establishment 
as Mystery Babylon the Great, she as such will 
be irretrievably retired from the world. 

And moreover, could it be made out that she 
will not enter upon her scarlet state, properly 
so, until she shall in 1926 become the unwelcome 
burden of scarlet Rome, it would then appear 
that in just one millenary hour, or forty-one 
years and eight months, from her entrance upon 
that state will her judgment be complete, she 
and her untold riches being brought to naught 
forever. 

Or in a more condensed way. if in 666 those 
foundations were fully laid which resulted in her 
establishment as Mystery Babylon the Great; 
and if in 968 she w^as fully established as such, 
and if in 1926 she is to enter upon her scarlet 
state, and if in 1968 her ruin is to be complete, 
then w^ill her millenary hour be the last hour of 
her millenary day, some part of the year 1968 
being the terminus thereof. 

Q. But what are w^e to understand by her 
scarlet state? 

A. Her uniform state, or that state in which 
she will formallv resolve herself into an alliance 



THE GREAT CITY BABYLON. 95 

of all her constituent parts or theocratic systems 
great and small; but which alliance, be it noted, 
will only be in name and in appearance, seeing 
that those systems that will then compose her 
will then be just as contradictory and as greatly 
at war one with the other in matters of faith and 
practice as they are now; so that she will then 
be as now, still the great city of warring element 
and religious confusion, as her name must for- 
ever imply. 

But because of the true theocracy that heaven's 
messengers will then herald in her midst, that 
alliance she must. form; and therefore the blood 
of the faithful she must shed; and so much so, 
indeed, that in her will be found the blood of 
prophets and apostles, and of all the righteous 
that will be slain upon the earth. 

Q. But how is she to have such power to slay 
the innocent, yet being herself so hated by the 
chief officers of state as to be at last destroyed 
by them with a destruction final and complete? 

A. We are to understand that although scarlet 
Rome's ten chief rulers may then hate her with 
a hatred inveterate, yet not being kings in fact, 
they will not, because of her great majorities, 
gain sufficient power over her to make away with 



g6 THE GREAT CITY BABYLON. 

her until, perhaps, during the last few years of 
her last millenary hour of forty-one years and 
eight months. 

And thus we can see that, while Rome's ten 
chief rulers may so greatly hate her, yet will she 
for most of her last millenary hour, because of her 
great majorities, still have power to bring God's 
holy ones to the rack, the stake, the galloAvs and 
guillotine. 

But while w^e must recognize the good that is still 
in her and the many good people that still belong 
to her churches, yet when she shall enter upon 
her scarlet, or coallied state, then and there will 
she enter upon her fallen state, fully so, and so 
well described in these words: 

" And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Baby- 
lon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habi- 
tation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a 
cage of every unclean and hateful bird." 

And thus we are led fairly to suspect, if no 
further, that for the very cause that God's own 
servants will be sent into her midst to persuade 
the just and the true to abandon her will she 
cause their blood to flow; nor yet sparing those 
that will dare exchange her pageantry for ^^the 
faith which was once delivered unto the ^ints." 



CHRIST AND HIS ARMY. 97 



CHAPTER XV. 



CHRIST AND HIS ARMY. 

Question. What explanation is proposed for 
Rev. 19:11-14? 

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; 
and he that sat upon him was called Fai^^hful and True, 
and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon 
white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." 

Answer. If the symbol described in Rev. 
12:1 was a representation of things on the earth, 
notwithstanding the wonder itself was seen in 
heaven, and if the things of Rev. 15:1 was also 
a representation of things on the earth, notwith- 
standing the picture thereof was seen in heaven, 
why, therefore, should not the vision of Christ 
and His army, as it was seen in heaven, repre- 
sent a real enactment of the scene on the earth; 
that is, a literal marching forth of the King of 
Kings with His army all mounted and uniformed 
as described to meet an invading foe? But 
what foe other than the armies and chief men 
of the last form of apocalyptic Rome, even that 
Rome that is to stand up against the ^'Prince of 
Princes, "but only to be broken without hand? 



98 CHRIST AND HIS ARMY. 

For if, according to Rev. 19:19, the beast and 
the kings of the earth and their armies are to be 
gathered together to make war against Christ 
and His army, will those who are afraid of the 
miraculous tell us how that will be done, except 
Christ and His army shall be veritably on the 
earth ? 

Q. But if Christ is God and if God is all 
powerful, could he not destroy His enemies with- 
out opposing them with a real army ? 

A. That Christ has power to destroy all His 
enemies by the power of His word we verily be- 
lieve, and that He will by the power of His word 
destroy those armies that will presume to make 
war upon Him and His army we also believe, 
notwithstanding it is taught that the beast and 
his great ally, the false prophet, will be taken. 
But why will they be taken while all their other 
<:onfederates will be slain by the word of His 
mouth except for the reason that they, being the 
instigators of the war, will be accounted worthy 
of a more awful doom — -the lake of fire burning 
w^ith brimstone? 

But what will be the occasion of the war, ex- 
cept Christ and His army shall then be on the 
earth? and in what place or country except in 



CHRIST AND HIS ARiMY. 99 

Zion, which will then no doubt be as a country, 
independent and exceedingly splendid as to its 
lands, its cities, its laws and inhabitants? 

But how will the beast, the false prophet and 
their confederates, know that Christ and His army 
are in Zion except it shall be so reported through- 
out their dominions ? But will they know that 
He is Christ, and that those who are with Him 
^^are called, and chosen and faithful?" And 
would they presume to make war upon Him, yet 
knowing Him to be the ^^king of kings and lord 
of lords? " 

But as they will believe Him to be no more 
than a man, and His army no more than their 
own soldiery, therefore will they send up their 
vast columns against the glorious land. But will 
the Master wait until they have hurled their 
blasphemous hordes upon hallowed ground? 
Rather, will He not march forth with His faithful 
sons, to challenge their entrance there ? 

But when they find themselves confronted by 
heaven's Captain and His white horse cavalcade, 
will they not be taken? That is, being welded, 
as it were, each one to his place, through that 
awful dread and consternation with which the 
most ^wicked alone may be inspired, what will 



CHRIST AND HIS ARMY. 



they do ? What can they do more than to re- 
main and to hear the calamity which they them- 
selves have brought, pronounced by Him with 
whom they have presumed to measure arms? 

How oft would I have received you unto my- 
self, but you would not? I have sent my chief 
servants time and again to warn you of your 
impending doom, except you should cease your 
blasphemies and turn from your awful crimes, 
of which you know you are guilty. But instead 
of giving heed to their pleadings, you have not 
only cast them into prison and into exile, but 
you have scourged them, tortured them, and 
slain them with all cruel inventions. 

And now, therefore, I call the hosts above, 
and all that are beholding our affairs, this day to 
witness that you will henceforth have no one to 
reproach for your calamity but yourselves; so 
that if you should henceforth continue your 
cursings and blasphemies, let such things be 
upon your own heads, and upon the head of him 
whose service you have so greatly preferred to 
my sayings. 

And now, if the earth should open her mouth 
to receive you into the flames below, that lake 
that burneth with fire and brimstone, whose fault 




CHRIST AND HIS ARMY. 1 01 

is it but your own? It was you that rejected the 
terms of mercy, and justice must have his own. 

And now therefore, O my Father in heaven, 
if it be thy will, that as the earth gave way to 
receive from view Korah, Dathan and Abiram, 
that it shall now give w^ay to let these down to 
their own place, thy w^ill be done; and in confir- 
mation of the sentence, let not only these sons, 
but all above us that are called to witness the 
scene, respond amen, thy will be done, forever- 
more 1 

Or, as we would suppose, thus will end beastly 
Rome, or that accursed horn of full twenty-seven 
and a half centuries, that shall ^^ stand up against 
the prince of princes, and be broken without 
hand." 



102 THE LAST GREAT REBELLION. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE LAST GREAT REBELLION. 

Question. What are we to understand by the 
things of Rev. 20:1-3, 8-10? Are we required 
to believe that such things will be possible, in 
any literal sense ? 

"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having 
the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which i 
the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years 
and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and 
set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no 
more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after 
that he must be loosed a little season. . . And shall go 
out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters 
of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to 
battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and com. 
passed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: 
and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured 
them. And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the 
lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false 
prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night, forever 
and ever." 

Answer. But if these things are not to be 
fulfilled in perfect accord with the words used, 



THE LAST GREAT REBELLION. IO3 

what substance is there in the affair? If there 
is no personal Devil, are there any such things 
at all as angels and spirits ? But if the Devil 
is and he cannot be bound, who, then, is the 
Almighty that he should be called such ? But 
if the Devil can be bound, how will that be 
done, except by the use of some means ? And 
why should not that means be a real chain and 
of a sort as well known and just as tangible to 
angels and spirits as are material chains to man's 
material structure? 

And again, if the Devil is and can be bound, 
why should not the bottomless pit be a real place 
and one that can be locked up and sealed up to 
hold in safety its special charge for one thou- 
sand years before it shall give him up to resume 
his work of deception and war? 

Q. But if the righteous are to be resurrected 
to reign with Christ a thousand years, and as we 
cannot suppose that these, after all this, could 
ever again be deceived, who, then, will those 
vast numbers be that are to be gathered together 
and marshaled for war? 

A. The descendants of those called the wise 
virgins in Mat. 25:2; that is, all the righteous that 
will be alive and prepared to meet Christ when 



104 THE LAST GREAT REBELLION. 

He shall come to remain, and who will enter the 
millennium in their mortality, or, at least, in a 
state that will not be so greatly changed as to 
dispense with powers of generation. And as it 
will be the descendants of these, therefore, that 
will overspread and so densely repopulate the 
outside world it will, therefore, be the great ma- 
jority of these, and not those in the resurrected 
state at all, whose smouldering ashes will pro- 
claim the end of the last rebellion against the 
truth and the testimony that will ever tarnish 
the universe through the deception of Lucifer, 
the ^^ fallen son of the morning." 

THE END. 



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